Help You
by Slambage
Summary: No matter how much of a brave face they put on, everyone needs a little help sometimes. AU in which the tributes are all talented sportsmen just attending school, and are picked to attend a training camp. Clovniss.
1. Chapter 1

**First ever attempt at a fic, I really hope it's not too bad! Something I just had to write to get out some of my Clovniss feels :)**

I unlocked the lock on my locker with the expertise that only comes from having a lock for several years and dumped my english books inside. English, honestly, who needs it? Time spent discovering hidden meanings in novel so hidden not even the author knew they were there. Such a waste. I swung the door shut and leaned forward resting my forehead on it. Thank God it was the end of the day, double english made me feel as though I'd spent 3 hours at training. Suddenly a grinning face slid into my peripheral vision.

"Having a hard time Catnip?" Gale laughed at my dejected expression. Gale was my best friend at school, well my best friend anywhere for that matter. Come to think of it I didn't really have an abundance of friends. Anyway, we'd known each other since we were babies since our mums were friends and we'd grown up together. He was tall, tall enough to make me look short which hardly ever happened, and at the moment he was towering over me as I stood slumped against the locker.

"mmfffff" Came the reply from me.

"Suck it up princess, we've got another 2 hours of training coming up tonight!"

"Don't remind me." I groaned. Gale and I were both archers, who dreamed secretly of making the Olympics. It was hard on our family sometimes since neither of ours were exactly rolling in cash. It wasn't that bad in local competitions since we lived in a relatively poor suburb, but in national competitions our old and worn equipment really stood out.

"No pain no gain!" He cheered enthusiastically at me before happily bouncing away to his locker, leaving me with I'm sure he thought was an inspiring message. One of the major differences between me and Gale was that he loved learning, and getting stuff done. He was at his most cheerful when he was being productive and working on his skills. I on the hand, disliked most of school, apart from maths and science because they actually made sense. I preferred to just practice and I spent all my free time at the range.

Standing back up again I noticed for the first time a red notice stuck to the front of my locker. I scanned it quickly;

_Katniss Everdeen,_

_Please go to room 12 for a quick meeting now, (3:00). Be punctual._

_Mr Abernathy._

I rolled my eyes. How was I meant to be punctual to a meeting that started the same time as last period finished? Mr Abernathy was a great guy and obviously knew his stuff (he taught science) but our head-strong personalities meant we often clashed.

"Gaaaaaale" I called, making my way through the horde of tired kids eager to get home. Suddenly I bumped into something hard and bounced backwards, almost hitting the floor.

"Oh sorry Katniss" The offending boy apologised, as he lifted me back up while blushing madly. "Must've been lost in my own world"

"Oh no that was me, just in a hurry to get to this meeting I'm apparently already late for." I rolled my eyes while giving him the best smile I could muster and trying to sidle off. Gale was always telling me I shouldn't me too harsh on Peeta, he was the kind of boy that wouldn't hurt a fly, and he seemed to have been in love with me since primary school.

"You're going to that? Me too!" He proudly held up a matching note.

"Oh great" I smiled again and this time made my escape. Gale met me halfway, with another of the notes in his hand and we headed off.

Eight other kids were already in the room, most of whom I recognised, waiting patiently for something to happen. Mr Abernathy sat in the chair at the front of the room, feet on the table and as relaxed as ever.

"Gale, Katniss! How lovely of you to finally join us" He drawled and stared pointedly at us until we sat with the others. "Now that we've all made it I guess I need to explain what you're doing here. To cut straight to the chase, the school has accepted an opportunity to join in a training program with several other schools that aims to offer talented sporting students access to top coaches and pathway to reaching the top level. The camp will be a month long, held at Panem training centre, where you will train, go to school with, and compete against students from other schools that are also believed to hold huge potential. We believe it to be a once in a lifetime opportunity and something you are your family should all seriously consider."

I sat in shock and realised my mouth was hanging open. It was amazing, more than we could ever have dreamed of. The opportunity to receive coaching from the best? To spend our days training and competing? I looked over at Gale, expecting to see him grinning back at me, but instead he was watching Mr Abernathy carefully.

"That all sounds amazing, but how much is something going to cost?" Gale asked sceptically.

"Glad you asked my dear boy!" Replied Mr Abernathy enthusiastically, sounding increasingly like a walking advertisement. "We've agreed to hold a fundraiser so it will be free of charge. You're free to take all your own equipment but anything you don't have will be provided."

Gale nodded slowly and finally allowed himself a small smile.

"Man that is so good" A boy from the other side of the room spoke up, Tresh. He was a large boy who I had always found intimidating, which annoyed me because I hated being intimidated. "So good." He shook his head in apparent amazement and left, triggering everyone else to start talking at once and me to remember that I needed to pick up my sister.

I eventually found her outside chatted excitedly to her about everything that had just happened as we made the walk home. Prim was the only person in the world I trusted more than Gale and seeing her almost jumping in happiness for me topped of one of best days I could remember in a long time.


	2. Chapter 2

The day had finally arrived. It was 6 in the morning and it was freezing, but Gale and I stood on the train platform with the others more excited than we'd ever been in our lives. Convincing Mum to let me go had taken a bit of effort but even she could see what an opportunity it was. She and Prim had dropped me of at the station around 10 minutes ago, Mum hadn't wanted to wait in the cold. Despite everyone else being surrounded by their families who were chatting away nothing could dampen my spirits as I knew this was finally the step that could push me from aspiring pro junior to, well just pro. The train eventually trundled in and I waited patiently while Gale said his goodbye's, his parents giving me quick hugs as well.

On the train we had a carriage to ourselves, which was fair enough as the trip was to take a whole day and night and I'm sure the other passengers didn't want to be stuck with a bunch of loud, jumping-out-of-their-skin teenagers. Mr Abernathy and Miss Trinket, the other teacher accompanying us, sat us down and pulled out several folders of information. I took the chance to look around the others that were coming on the camp. I recognised most of them, 4 girls apart from me and 5 boys. There was Peeta who was there for weightlifting, Thresh who was the same, Ashlee who was a talented cyclist with bright red hair and a face that always reminded me of fox. And there was Thresh's younger sister Rue who was about 2 or 3 years below me and I had heard was an amazing table tennis player. The others I didn't recognise but I guess I'd be getting to know them over the next few days.

"Alright listen up children" Miss Trinket bubbled cheerfully, apparently relishing in the idea of being organiser. Across from me I noticed the huge and 18-year-old Thresh raise his eyebrow at being called a child. "When we arrive you'll all be given time to settle in to your rooms. They're only small rooms, for two people each, and in the spirit of the trip we've decided to pair each of you up with a student from one of the other schools!" She gave us all an enthusiastic grin, "And the school you guys will be rooming with is Career College!" There was a huge collective groan. Career College was pretty much the complete opposite of our school. They were a private school and never had to do a scrap of work for their families. Rather than the old, sometimes several days in a row, clothes that we wore, the Career College students wore fancy blazers that probably cost more money than we'd ever spent in our lives. If we were lucky enough to make a big competition and had to compete against them, they were always doubly hard to beat because of their top-of-the-range equipment. Even worse than their sporting advantages was the way they strutted around everywhere as if they owned everything. Gale and I had spent many hours discussing the unfair advantage they seemed to have and were definitely not fans of them.

Sometime after Mr Abernathy had managed to restore some order to the conversation and Gale was officially in sulk mode, we finally arrived at the station at 6 o'clock. I couldn't help gasping at what I saw when we stepped out. The station was right at the training centre, which was surrounded by lush grass and a beautiful lake off to the left. As for the training centre itself, it looked enormous, with a fancy sign sitting proudly out the front reading "PANEM TRAINING CENTRE". Inside was even better, with long shiny corridors and room upon room set up perfectly for all different sports filled with amazing equipment. We were lead into the dinning hall where yet another meeting was going to be held. I glanced around, and there were lots of different uniforms but none of the blood red blazers that belonged to the careers, as we called them.

"Probably think they're too good for a meeting" Gale muttered in my ear as we filled the second last empty table. I stopped myself from pointing out that we were also 15 minutes late.

The loud chatter and laughter hushed suddenly and I swivelled round to see exactly what I expected - the careers had arrived. They stood in a tight group in the door way, in a way that would give any other group the appearance of being frightened. These guys were different though, and they looked so much at ease even with everyone watching them it was as though they savoured the attention. They probably did. They spotted the only empty table and walked calmly over, feeling no pressure to hurry despite the glares the adults at the front of the room were shooting them.

"Now that everyone is seated" A man with white hair spoke from the front of the room, "My name is Mr Snow and I would like to formally welcome you all to the Panem training centre camp. I'm sure you'll all have a wonderful few weeks. To my left are your instructors, all experts in their field and ready to pass on their extensive knowledge." He gestured at the instructors who mostly smiled apart from one man who gave a wave and a wink. He had perfectly styled sandy coloured hair and eyes that seemed to shine. There were gasps from girls all around the room and I swear a blond haired girl from the careers' table was about to run at him. Mr Snow cleared his throat and everyone settled down again. "I'm sure you are all eager to make yourselves at home so we won't keep you much longer. Dinner will be served every night, here, at 7 o'clock. Breakfast is at 7 in the morning. Training commences tomorrow and school the day after, on Wednesday. You may now go to your rooms."

There was a small riot as everyone headed off. I made my way through the crowd until I found the hall of girl's rooms and walked along looking for 35, which was mine. It was a short walk from the dinning hall which I was thankful about, the thing I was less thankful about was the girl that was probably going to be waiting inside. For the first time I wondered what sport she was here for. Maybe she was an archer like me and they paired us up according to sports? I hoped she wasn't because I really didn't want to beat her and have her kill me in the night or something. I was getting carried away, and took a deep breath to calm down, then pushed the door open.

There was no one inside. I actually giggled and then blushed, quickly turning around to see no one had heard. I shut the door behind me and dumped my small bag onto the bed before flopping back onto it. The softness made me gasp, it was easily the nicest bed I'd ever felt. Back home I shared a bed with Prim and it was years old, so hard I often wondered if sleeping on the floor would be more comfortable.

My train of thought was interrupted when the door was suddenly kicked open and my new roommate shuffled in backwards, dragging a bag behind her that was almost bigger than her. Which wasn't saying much really because she looked like she'd only be about up to my chin. She set the bag down, pushed the door shut with a gentleness that surprised me, and turned around.


	3. Chapter 3

It was like someone had kicked me in the stomach. Where was the air in this room? I swear I was able to breathe a second ago. I'd noticed two things about this new girl straight away. Number 1, she was looking at me like I was a bit of mud stuck to her shoe, and 2 - she was absolutely gorgeous.

She had dark hair that she was wearing in a pony tail and dark eyes, that at the moment were glaring at me, and a perfect nose with a smattering of freckles across it. Though she was tiny in height she held the appearance of being powerful and fit.

"What'cha looking at?" she scowled at me.

"Uh, what? No, nothing, it's nothing. I'm Katniss by the way." Why was I stumbling over my words?

She nodded, "Clove"

Clove, didn't that mean to split something open? God even her name was scary.

Clove shuffled over to the remaining bed and dumped her things down, and then pulled her blazer off to reveal a short sleeved shirt showing arms with muscles that rippled with every movement. My chances of surviving the week were looking smaller by the minute, let alone making friends with this girl.

"So what sport are you here for?" I asked her. Please say something like shooting. Or table tennis.

"Boxing." _Great_ I groaned internally. I waited, but she didn't ask about me, just began to put her masses of clothes into our shared wardrobe. Her arms were distracting me again.

"I do archery"

"Nice" she nodded again.

I joined her in hanging up my clothes in the wardrobe. I tried to hide the amount of clothes I was hanging up but once we both stood back it was all too obvious that she had about 10 times the amount of clothing. I blushed as she glanced curiously at my empty bag.

"Someone stolen your clothes?"

"Yeah very funny. We don't all have parents to buy us everything we want."

"My parents are dead"

Crap. "Oh...I'm sorry."

Clove shrugged. "We'd better go to dinner" she said shortly and walked out without checking to see if I was following.

So out first conversation hadn't gone brilliantly but it wasn't as bad as it could have been. For some reason she intrigued me, and even though she was rude and maybe a bit stuck up, there was something about her that didn't seem to fit the mould of the careers. For starters she didn't have parents to buy her all her clothes and equipment, and Gale was always complaining that that was where all their money came from. I was burning to ask her more questions, like how did she afford all her things? Did she have a job? Surely not, all careers had everything handed to them on a platter, they were lazy and didn't have to do anything for themselves, everyone knew that. I headed off to dinner with a million questions swirling around in my head.

The hall was packed, and so noisy I could hardly hear myself think. Thankfully I spotted Gale in the line for food and headed over, where Peeta smiled and let me in front of him.

"Food better be good." Gale grumbled, the careers were already getting to him.

"I'm sure it will be if this place is anything to go by. How's your roommate?"

"Ugh I guess he's not that bad. Fancies himself as a bit of a joker but really he's just a douche bag. And you should see the things he has! His family must have more money than they know what to do with. Even his name is stupid - Marvel! Honestly, the names these people come up with!" His frustration was almost comical and I had to suppress a smile as he asked me how mine was.

"Yeah she's not too bad either actually. Pretty lethal looking though, I wouldn't want to get in her way. She's a boxer and I keep worrying she's gonna rip my head off or something."

"Boxers don't rip people's heads off"

"Whatever. Oh look there she is now! See, small but scary." I was about to point her out but stupid Peeta moved in front of me right at that moment and I lost her.

"Where?" asked Gale, craning his neck to see over the masses of people, "Which one is she?"

"Wait a second" I stepped backwards so I could see past Peeta and felt some sort of warm sensation on my leg but ignored it as I tried to sport the long dark hair again.

"Um Katniss..." Peeta stuttered, looking at me now.

"Shut up for a second Peeta I'm looking for someone."

"No really Katniss your leg-"

"KATNISS YOUR LEG IS ON FIRE!" Ashlee screamed from behind Peeta.

Oh shit. When I'd stepped back to get a better view I'd stepped straight into one of the fireplaces they had along the walls. And sure enough my entire pant's leg was now on fire.

"Oh my God Oh my God" I muttered as I swatted at the flames, but all I was achieving was burning my hands.

"Katniss roll on the floor! Get down!" Gale yelled at me.

"I am not rolling on the floor Gale!" I hissed back as I realised the entire room was now watching me and some of the careers were beginning to laugh.

"Katniss!" He yelled again.

"Fine!" I hit the floor and rolled side to side until finally the flames were all gone. I slowly stood back up and was greeted to the sight of everyone in the room in fits of hysterical laughter. A tall blonde boy was laughing so hard he was doubled over, but luckily for him he regained his breath long enough to yell across the room "HEY FIRE GIRL! YOU COULD ENTER THE ROLL-A-LYMPICS!"

Everyone burst into laughter again and turned to see what my reaction would be. I turned bright red and said nothing at all, huddling behind Gale and Peeta so I couldn't be seen. The boy's joke wasn't even funny, ugh. I hated attention so much, I could just feel everyone's eyes boring into the back of my head.

I made it though dinner without spilling anything or setting myself on fire again, though I looked pretty stupid with half my pants missing. I said my goodnights and made my way back to the room, ignoring the calls of "Fire girl!" mixed with various jokes.

Inside Clove was busy arranging books and ornaments onto her bedside table, but glanced up at me when I entered.

"How's it going Fire girl? You always go around standing in fireplaces?"

"It was an accident" I groaned and fell back onto my bed, eyelids drooping despite it being only 8o'clock.

"I know" she gave me a grin that was strangely lopsided, but looked genuine. "How's your leg?"

The question surprised me; it was the first time she'd made any attempt to keep the conversation going. "It's fine, it didn't really get any flames on it."

"Ok. I have cream for burns if you need, it's in the bathroom."

"Oh thanks, that's really nice" She didn't see my smile though as she seemed focused intently on re-shuffling her books into what now looked like alphabetical order.

I still couldn't figure her out, it seemed almost like she was trying to be nice and didn't quite know how. I'd worry about it later though and for now I decided I'd put some of the cream on in the morning just in case my leg really was burned and shut my eyes.

A few hours later I woke and peered around the room bleary-eyed, fumbling around for my watch. 3 o'clock? That couldn't be right, Clove was still awake. I looked over to her and saw her sitting upright on her bed with a few textbooks surrounding her, watching me.

"Don't you have pyjamas fire girl?"

"Yeah I do thanks very much, I wasn't planning on falling asleep. What are you doing up? Are those maths books?"

"No" She replied defensively, and tried to cover up the front which clearly read 'YEAR 8 MATHS'.

"Wait," I frowned "What year are you in?"

"Year 10."

"So then why-"

"It's nothing!" She yelled, suddenly furious "Why don't you just shut up and stop asking so many questions. I'm going to sleep." She shoved the books onto the floor, turned to face the other way and switched the light off.

Well that was obviously a touchy spot. I waited a few minutes and sure enough in no time at all the sound of her slow breathing filled the room. Unlike me she must be a heavy sleeper. I crept over to her bed and couldn't help smiling at her small form curled up in a ball, she looked adorable. I pulled out the maths textbook she'd been reading and flicked through it. Not only was it filled with year 8 maths work, but it was easy year 8 maths. Before I could stop myself I picked up the exercise books she'd been working in and looked through them as well. They were filled with questions that had been crossed out, re-crossed out and scribbled all over, she'd obviously been agonising over them. I felt a sudden huge wave of sympathy for this girl now peacefully asleep next to me, who was so embarrassed by her maths that she acted tough and then studied in the early hours of the morning so no one would know she was struggling. Maths was one of the few things in school I actually enjoyed and was good at, and I vowed right then that I was going to find a way to break through her walls and help her.

**I wasn't sure if you guys would be confused with the school grading, so just to make sure - here in Australia we have only primary and high school and high school is from 7 - 12. So year 7s are about 12 years old and year 12s are around 18 and it's their last year of school. :) Katniss is a year 11. I just stuck with that rather than trying to change it to the Amercian one or whatever because I knew I'd just get confused and probably muck it up :)**


	4. Chapter 4

Training the next morning started at 9am sharp in a big shed outside labelled 'archery shed 1' which Gale and I managed to find without getting lost once which we were quite proud of. His good mood was short-lived however when we walked in and saw his roommate Marvel already there.

"Why does he have to do archery!?" He complained angrily "All these sports, and he does archery as well? It's like they're forcing me to be friends with him!"

I rolled my eyes "I'm sure it's just a coincidence. Let's hurry they're already starting."

We reached the group where a tall man was standing with a relaxed smile.

"Welcome, Gale, Katniss" He nodded at us, and I wondered briefly how he knew our names. "My name is Cinna and I'll be your instructor while you're here. I was just explaining to the others that we're going to have some free practice to start with so I can come around and look at your techniques. You may begin"

Brilliant, I'd been itching to get my hands on a bow all of yesterday. Gale and I set up in a corner away from the others and begun shooting from close in to get used to the new fancy bows we were supplied with. In no time we'd got the hang of it and moved back to a normal distance, getting comfortable with the slightly different strength we had to use to pull the string back the right length. I let one fly.

Bang, bulls-eye.

I wonder what Clove was doing right now.

Bang, another bulls-eye.

I wonder if she enjoyed her training like I did, or if she saw it as a chore like some others did. I guessed for her it was a bit of a combination.

Bang, yet another 10.

I wonder how Clove looked boxing, with a singlet and shorts and sweat dripping off her and-

_Damn it._ I hissed to myself as I shot a 7. _Concentrate Katniss._

"Katniss" Cinna glided over to me, "You're angling the bow too low, make sure to keep it straight."

He moved onto Gale and I glowered angrily as he complimented him on his perfect technique.

At dinner my arms were aching after a whole day shooting and I was thankful to finally be able to sit down and catch up with everyone. Peeta and Thresh had apparently found they got along really well after spending the day together at weight lifting and were now chatting away, which I was happy about because Peeta never seemed to have many friends and I felt sorry for him. Speaking of not having many friends, I'd been watching the careers table through dinner and thought it strange that Clove hadn't talked to anyone the whole time. The tall blonde boy was sitting next to her but he seemed more interested in making the whole table laugh than having a conversation with her. Across from him Marvel was doing his best job to catch the attention of the blonde girl who was sitting on the other side of Clove. I watched as she twirled her spaghetti around her fork and seemed to study the table.

"Katniss" Ashlee called in a way I could tell wasn't the first time she'd tried to get my attention, and I suddenly realised I had a forkful of spaghetti halfway to my mouth.

"Oh" I exclaimed and shoved the food into my mouth "Yessh?"

Gale shot me a quizzical look as the others laughed. "We were just talking about the classes we're in for tomorrow. I'm in 10-11 A with Peeta, and Gale and Thresh are in 11-12 B, what about you?"

I checked the piece of paper we'd had handed to us earlier that day and felt my heart sink a little bit. "I'm in 10-11 B, does that mean I'm by myself?" I glanced around the table and there was no response, which settled it. "Great" I groaned.

"Maybe you can make friends with some of the careers!" Rue pipped up

"Yeah right, I don't think that's even possible."

"She's right" Thresh joined in "I've got that blonde idiot over there called Cato and he's the worst. Luckily he spends all his time in girls' rooms so I hardly have to see him."

"Speak for yourself," Gale grumbled again "I've got the tall brown haired one and all he wants to do is talk to me! I'd gladly swap for yours. How's yours Ashlee?"

"I've got no idea, she's the blonde one and she hasn't spoken to me since she got here. Apparently her name's Glimmer but that's all I know. Well that and she snores."

Rue giggled. "Well I'm the lucky one, 'cause they didn't want to put me in with a big one and the careers are all old so I got a nice one from a school near ours."

"Lucky! What about yours Katniss?" Ashlee asked me

"I don't think she's too bad, she's a bit shy actually. And she offered me burn cream." I added as an afterthought.

"Well I think we've stalled as long as we can, better get going" Gale pointed out regretfully, everyone around us was leaving for their rooms. We stood up and Gale said he wanted to walk me to my room, so we said goodbye to the others and headed off.

"What did you need to talk about?" I asked him once we were out of earshot.

"You like her" Gale stated shortly, his tone accusing.

"I like who?" I asked bemused.

"Your roommate. Clover or whatever her name is."

"It's Clove." I corrected, "And what do you mean? I don't really dislike her, but we've only just met and we're not exactly best friends."

"No that's not what I meant. You've got a crush on her."

"What?!" I spluttered. Had he gone mad? "Me? On Clove? You've got to be kidding. I just think she's nice 'cause she offered me the cream."

"You do! Katniss I've known since before we could walk, I know you. You spent the whole of dinner staring at her with your mouth hanging open. You go red whenever someone mentions her. And when you talk about her you get...this look."

It was official, he was crazy. "I so do not!" I replied, my voice going squeaky and I knew I sounded childish.

"Look it's not a problem, I'm just saying - you've got to be careful. I can see she's got you under some kind of spell or something but she's a career, they're not nice people!"

"How can you tell that? I think she's just misunderstood."

He raised his eyebrow and smirked. "And you think you don't like her." He shook his head. "Whatever. Just don't let your guard down easily around her alright? We don't know what they could do." He started to walk off and then called back over his shoulder "Oh! And stay away from the brown-haired girl in archery! I call dibs!"

I was left standing in the middle of the hallway utterly gobsmacked. Me? A crush on Clove? It was ludicrous. Besides, I was straight wasn't I? I'd never exactly been interested in boys but I was sure I just hadn't found the right one. Gale was wrong, he was crazy. I didn't like Clove. What an idiot.

Somehow I found myself at my door and went inside, thankfully Clove was nowhere to be seen, I needed some thinking time. I sunk down against the wardrobe and leaned my head back, and suddenly realised the water was running in the bathroom. And that Clove was singing.

If I thought I'd heard good singing before, I was wrong. The voice coming from the bathroom was surely an angel's. Her voice sounded nothing like her speaking voice, which was rough and low-ish, this voice was flawless and pure. At the moment she was belting out some catchy pop song I'd heard on the radio a few times, but no pop song had ever had me captivated like this. She changed to a different song, a slower one, and her rough voice reappeared, suiting the song perfectly. I smiled to myself and closed my eyes, enjoying the private concert.

Eventually the water was switched off and she appeared wearing black button-up pyjamas that made her look so innocent and cute I probably would've needed to sit down if I wasn't already. I cleared my throat to make sure she knew I was there, and she jumped in fright.

"What the hell!" She glared at me, her face turning crimson as she realised I must have heard her singing. "Why are you here?"

"This is my room."

"So...does that mean...did you hear..." she glanced back at the bathroom.

"Yeah I did, but there's nothing to worry about, your voice is amazing! You definitely have a gift."

She stared at me, unsure how to respond. She was obviously uncomfortable so I took another stab at starting a conversation.

"You're always back so early, don't you ever feel like hanging out with your friends?"

"I don't have any" She replied flatly and moved to her bed, pulling a few things out of her drawers.

'What do you mean? What about the other careers?"

"Nah. They don't like me, I'm not very interesting."

"That's not true! I think you're interesting!"

She gave me a look. "That's 'cause you're strange Fire girl."

_Sigh_. Maybe getting to know her really was going to be an impossible task. I tried one more time.

"What's that you're working on?" She was concentrating hard on something in her hands but I couldn't quite make it out.

"What? This?" She looked surprised that I was asking, "It's, uhh... well if you go have your shower then some of it will be ready and I'll show you."

"Ok" I agreed, confused but happy she was opening up, even if it was only a tiny bit.

After my shower, which was easily the best I'd ever had, I found her still working away on whatever it was she was doing. I wondered briefly if I should sit next to her on the bed but quickly decided that was probably a dangerous idea and opted instead to just stand next to her.

"Ok look," She said and showed me the piece of wood and knife she held. "I use this, to carve this. And make things."

"Wow," I breathed, and with a small confirming nod from her I carefully took the small piece of wood. All the while she was speaking she'd been spinning the knife expertly between her fingers and I was getting slightly worried for both of ours safety, but she seemed not to notice she was even doing it. "So this is going to be-"

"A guitar" She nodded, and when I looked closely I could clearly see the outline forming and a few dints that were perhaps going to become strings.

"That's really cool!" I enthused, "Is it hard?"

"Not really. Just takes a bit of practice. I practice when I'm bored at home."

I wondered where she lived if she didn't have parents.

"It's really great. You'll have to show me when you're done."

A strange expression crossed her face as I said it and I realised finally that she didn't know how to respond to compliments. Judging from what I'd heard of her, she probably hadn't received too many.

"Well, school tomorrow, I better get some rest. What class are you in?"

"10-11B, same as you" she replied without looking up as I hopped into bed.

"Oh, how'd you know that?"

"All roommates are in the same class" She shrugged.

"Oh" I hadn't known that "You going to sleep anytime soon?"

"Maybe" came the vague response.

"Ok, well night!"

There was no response so I just pulled the covers over my head to block out the lights of the room. No sooner had I shut my eyes than I heard her bed creak, a small pattering of the lightest possible footsteps, before the main light was switched off and another creak meant she was back on her bed. I poked my head out and saw her calmly turn the lamp next to her bed on.

"Hey thanks" I called out, but she refused to look over so I just lay back down again. The soft pillow was almost dragging me into sleep but I just couldn't get her out of my head. I became another person when I was around her, how did she make me talk so much? Time spent with Gale was usually in comfortable silence, but something about Clove was making me yearn to know everything about her. I wanted to learn what had happened in her life to make her the quiet, blunt, un-trusting girl she was now. From the other side of the room I heard her yawn and I couldn't stop a smile spreading across my face.

I don't know what it was that woke me up but I'd always been a light sleeper and it could've been something as simple as the click of a pen. Either way I was now awake at a very similar time to yesterday morning, and sure enough so was Clove.

"Don't you ever sleep?" I groaned

Her head shot up and she looked at me, but then went back to her work, which was maths again.

"Or speak?" I muttered not loudly enough for her to hear. I rolled off the bed and went and crouched next to hers.

"Look, I'm good at maths and-"

"Oh I bet you are." She sneered "So is everyone! 'Maths is so easy Clove, what are you doing? Why don't you get it?' That's what they all say, I don't need you to come rubbing it in my face as well!"

I sat slightly shocked, "No Clove that's not what I meant I promise. I want to help you, I'll explain it for you."

"I don't need help. 'Specially not from someone like you" She said harshly.

I ignored the comment. "Ok ok. How about I just sit here and if you get stuck you can ask me and I might be able to help."

"Fine"

I sat patiently and watched as she worked her way through a question. Her hands were freckled with long fingers and had the kind of knuckles along her fingers that stuck out.

"What's 57 take 28?" she mumbled

"Uh, 29"

"Ok" she jotted down a few more things and then threw her book down in frustration.

"It still doesn't work!"

"Ok look," I picked up her book, "You got the formula all right, but see here, when you've got a negative outside of the bracket you've gotta change the signs of everything inside. So try that."

She hesitated, but did what I suggested and sure enough came up with the right answer. She brightened and a tiny smile appeared on her face.

"C'mon let's do the next one," I prompted her as I picked up the next book. "We'll try to get 10 right and if we do, we can sleep. Ok?"

"Ok." She nodded slowly.

Despite one or two tantrums from Clove, we had got through them and half an hour later she sat looking at her book with a proud smile.

"Awesome!" I cheered "Now time for me to get some shut-eye." My legs were cramping from crouching for so long and I was happy to finally get off the floor. Clove put her books away as I turned off the light.

"Hey Fire girl."

"Mmhm?"

"Thanks" came the murmur.

"Anytime. Night Clove."

"Goodnight"


	5. Chapter 5

Clove leant against the wardrobe, impatiently waiting for me to put my shoes on. Breakfast started in 10 minutes and she hated not being early, but this was the first time she'd waited for me.

"For someone who's meant to be good with your fingers, you're not very good at tying shoelaces are you." Clove drawled, obviously referring to my archery skills.

"Shut up" I replied, pushing aside the thoughts of what I'd prefer my fingers to be doing right now. At the moment they were struggling with the laces of my worn out boots only because Clove was staring.

"Ok I'm good" I jumped up and Clove rolled her eyes but held the door open and let me through before her.

We reached the dining hall actually on time for a meal, which was a first for me. The tributes table was still empty but Clove was the last one to arrive at the career's table and I saw Cato shoot her a confused look when we walked in together. She joined them without saying anything to me and I took my own place at my usual table to wait for the others.

Since today was Wednesday it was our first day of having class in the morning. Training would usually continue as usual in the afternoon, but today I had a competition. There were 2 practice competitions that were going to be held and then near the end of the camp there would be the main one, which students from all the other sports could come watch. The practice competitions didn't really mean much, but they were going to be a good gauge of where we were compared to everyone else. Gale was already confident he'd be taking out first place this afternoon, but I wasn't so sure. We'd only seen everyone shooting for 1 day, and there were definitely some talented people there.

Clove hadn't waited for me after breakfast so I had to find the classroom by myself. Surprise surprise, we had maths first. I spotted her in the back corner of the room and since I didn't recognise anyone else I made my way over. She watched quietly as I slid into my seat with her usual blank expression, but didn't seem to have any objection to me sitting with her. I figured this was a step in the right direction.

The sandy haired man from the first day was standing at the front of the room and I could already see some of the girls staring with glazed over expressions. I quickly glanced over to see if Clove was doing the same but was pleased to see she was gazing out the window looking bored.

"Good morning class!" The man introduced himself cheerily, "My name's Mr O'Dair and I'll be your maths and science teacher while you're here. To get an idea of everyone's abilities I'll start you off with a quick quiz just to see where we're all at. No need to worry, I'll be the only one seeing your result."

Clove's face lost a shade of colour and I felt bad for her, a quiz right away would stress most people out, let alone her. The quiz was a simple 15 mark double sided sheet and I got started quickly, none of the questions proving too much of a problem. I was halfway through drawing a parabola for question 8, when I made the mistake of looking over at Clove and suddenly sent the graph flying off the edge of the page. I hadn't thought she could look more adorable than she already did, but then again I'd never seen her in reading glasses. The glasses looked uncomfortable on her and she had her nose and forehead screwed up as she struggled through question 3. She was twirling her pen the same way she had twirled her knife last night and I felt glad this one was a bit less life threatening.

"Eyes on your own paper please!" The teacher suddenly called out, snapping me out my trance. I flushed as he shot me a stern look and quickly finished the rest of the paper, doing my best to erase the pencil that was now on the table.

I finished with about 10 minutes to go and most people around me were finishing up as well. Clove looked up and saw what was happening, and then quickly scribbled a few guesses for the last questions so she wouldn't be the last to finish. She looked slightly guilty when she noticed I'd seen her, but looked away just as quickly.

After the test Mr O'Dair collected our papers and informed us we'd be having a proper test on Friday and I groaned. I'd never have Clove ready by Friday, that was only two days away.

As he left and we waited for the history teacher to arrive I leaned over and asked Clove how she went.

"Alright" she shrugged, "I don't think I got many right."

"That's ok, at least you know what to study now right?"

"I guess."

That afternoon Gale and I had our competition. The guys went first and we sat and watched in the stands that had been set up around the edges. The Marvel guy was good, but not as good as Gale. However Gale's satisfied smirk when he shot a 10 didn't have a patch on Marvel's over excited victory dance whenever he scored a bulls-eye. In the end Gale won easily and he gave a smug look to Marvel who didn't seem to care in the slightest.

Soon after it was our turn, and I easily made it through the first rounds. Eventually the brown-haired girl and I were the only ones remaining, Glimmer had been last knocked out. The other girl, whose name I learned was Jaylan, took her 3 shots and scored an 8, 10 and a 9. I took my place in front of the target and took a deep breath. For some reason when I tried to empty my mind my thoughts travelled to Clove once again. Imaginary Clove grinned at me from inside my head as she breathed heavily after a boxing match. I lowered the bow, took another deep breath, brought it back up again and quickly took my shot before my thoughts could drift again. A 9, good. My next was another 9 and I secured the win with a 10.

Gale cheered from the stands and Jaylan came over to shake my hand, giving me a kind smile. Cinna congratulated me as well and I allowed myself for the first time to imagine bringing home first prize to my family. The prize money, although small, would make a big difference.

At dinner that night Gale and I were excitedly discussing our victories and chatting to the others, some of whom had had competitions today as well, when Mr Snow made an announcement.

"Good evening students. I'm happy to let you know that as reward for you first hard day at school and a short release from the confines of school, we've organised a bowling night for you all. Anyone who wishes to attend should be out at the buses by 8."

"Bowling! We have to go! Oh please can we go, please!" Rue pleaded, who knew she wouldn't be allowed anywhere if there wasn't some of us with her.

"Oh course we're going" Thresh replied, "I can't wait to whip all your butts!"

"I think I'll have something to say about that!" Peeta grinned and suddenly everyone was shouting excitedly at once.

"C'mon let's go get ready or no one's going to be winning" I interjected and so we hurried off.

I was changed and ready to go by the time Clove finally back to our room.

"Get a move on! The bus will be gone by the time we get there."

She glanced at me, surprised.

"Oh no, I'm not going," She sunk down on her bed and pulled out her wood carving. "I can just work on this while everyone's gone."

"C'mon Clove!" I wheedled "Just one night of fun! What harm can it do? I think it'd be good for you to get out of the room for a bit."

I gave her my best grin while she thought about what I'd said.

"Fine" she finally sighed, "But only so I can smash you."

"Oh good luck with that, back home they call me the bowling power house."

"Really?" She looked surprised as she pulled on some better shoes.

"No I was kidding, I've only been bowling once."

"Oh." And she laughed, a sound that made my stomach flip. "Ok, and by the way, no telling anyone we're friends. The careers would kill themselves with laughter if they found out."

She headed out the door and I found myself following her, grinning stupidly at the idea that she considered us friends.

The bowling centre was huge, probably about 5 times larger than the one back home. We were to be in groups of up to 5 so Gale, Ashlee and I chose lane 12 and Thresh, Rue and Peeta claimed lane 11. To Gale's disgust the careers loudly settled themselves on the couches of the lane 13 with their group of Cato, Glimmer, Marvel and Clove.

I went round the back of the couches to pick a ball that was the right size and Clove followed me. I picked a smaller blue one, and watched as she hefted a large red off the rack.

"You can't use that!" I whispered in disbelief, I knew nobody was watching.

"Watch me" She winked and took the ball back to her lane with apparent ease.

Gale was up first and he easily took down 7 and then knocked down another 2 to make 9.

"Whoo!" He celebrated and slapped me a high-5. To our left Peeta made a spare, his first bowl almost 5k's faster than Gale's. Gale's eyes flashed with his competitiveness automatically switched on but I didn't think he had a chance with Peeta's huge arms and relaxed but smooth technique.

In the lane to our right Cato had also scored a strike. Ashlee made an 8, Rue only a 6 and Thresh a 9. Glimmer also made an 8 and Marvel confidently sent his ball rocketing down the lane, only for it to spin into the gutter.

"I am the king!" He crowed, beating his chest while Cato guffawed. Clove rolled her eyes and calmly bowled a strike.

"Pressure!" Gale hissed from behind me as I stood up for my turn. "Pressure!"

"Shut up Gale." I hissed and struggled over to the line with the heavy ball. From over in lane 13 I could hear the careers sniggering. I hefted in down the lane and watched with relief as it knocked over 7 pins.

"Solid Katniss, but I think you need some more muscles" Tresh teased and proceeded to start a flexing competition with Peeta and Gale. I took my second shot and knocked down 1 more pin.

By the time the game was half over, my arms felt like they were going to fall off and I was tied in second place with Ashlee in our lane. Over in the careers lane Clove was the surprise package, having not a missed a strike so far. Cato was absolutely fuming, Glimmer was too busy perving on all the boys around her to notice and Marvel had somehow made his way over to our lane.

"So guys," He drawled, settling himself down on our couch. "Y'all wanna come to a little party we're havin' tomorrow? Everyone's gonna be there, it's gonna go off!"

"Marvel!" Cato frowned,

"Aw lighten up man! The more the merrier right? Besides, that one's kind of cute." He nodded obnoxiously at me and I flushed.

"Why are you having a party on Thursday night anyway?" Peeta asked while eyeing Marvel suspiciously.

"Why not buddy? No alcohol so it's fine" He said with a wink

"Can't hurt I guess" Gale decided "What'd you reckon Catnip?"

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Clove's eye's snap to Gale, and look of intense dislike crossed her face.

"Sure." I shrugged.

"Me too" Peeta quickly joined in and Thresh nodded as well.

"Oh me too me too!" Rue bubbled excitedly

"No way." Thresh answered flatly and she sulked angrily.

"Alright then!" Marvel said enthusiastically. "See you all there then. Starts at 9, in the shed next to the archery one."

We nodded and he finally left to take his shot.

The game continued and Clove was having her turn. Her biceps strained as she picked up the ball and I found myself captivated by her arms yet again. The ball was sent flying down the lane and she scored yet another 10, giving her the win. Cato glowered and she allowed herself a little smile.

"Katniss!" Ashlee was calling and I quickly stood up to take my turn. Gale smirked at me and I glared back at him.

I knocked over 7 pins to give me last place in our game. Gale had won our lane, but Peeta's score was even higher and he made sure to let him know about it.

By the time we'd made it home I was well and truly ready for bed. Clove had made it home on the first bus and she was already tucked in bed.

"Going to sleep at a normal human time I see" I commented

"All that winning made me tired." She smirked and I laughed.

I changed in the bathroom and slid into bed. Suddenly I had a brain wave and rummaged through my drawer for my old nokia phone. I set the alarm for 2.30am and set it back down on my bedside table.

"Night Clove" I called softly

"Goodnight Fire girl" she replied and I fell asleep with an easy smile on my face.

At 2.30am exactly my alarm blared and I sleepily rolled over to switch it off, and glanced up to see Clove sitting up in the bed looking like she'd seen a ghost.

"What the hell was that?"

"My alarm" I replied casually and got up.

She eyed me warily as I approached her bed.

"Shove over." I nudged her gently but she simply stared back at me blankly so I sat myself down next to her. Yet again she had her maths books out again so I looked over them.

"Ok keep going, I'll watch again"

She paused but eventually did so, and I soon noticed another mistake she was making.

"Oh look," I leaned over and my arm brushed against hers. Immediately her entire body stiffened up and she froze, gripping her pencil as though it was a weapon. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"Um, no it's nothing. What were you saying?" Even so she moved slightly away from me so our arms weren't touching.

"Ok well..." This time I pointed at where she had gone wrong and my hand touched hers and again her entire body stiffened.

"Seriously Clove what's going on?"

She paused. "I don't know. It's just...I'm not used to...I mean at home I don't have any friends, or family, so...it's just I'm not really used to any contact. The only time it ever really happened is in boxing I guess and that means I'm getting hurt." The wave of sympathy hit me again and I held my hand over hers. She watched it carefully as I softly brushed my thumb along her the top of her hand.

"It's ok, see? Nothing's going to happen. "

"I know. It's just hard to get used to." she was speaking so quietly I could barely hear her. "I live with Cato and his family, and I get hit a lot by him when we do boxing and fencing. That's his sport, fencing. He's says we're just practicing but he's a lot bigger..." she shrugged suddenly and looked embarrassed that she'd said so much, I could tell she'd never opened up to anyone before.

"Clove..." I breathed softly, "I would never hurt you, you know that right?"

"I know"

I slipped my arm around her waist and gave her a soft squeeze.

"Let's finish this chapter ok?"

She took a deep breath and nodded, slowly working her way through the next question.

An hour later we'd finished the entire chapter and were both more than ready for some sleep. The small girl next to me yawned and stretched contentedly.

"Ready for bed Fire girl?" She asked me

"Sure am." I replied and gave her a final squeeze before returning to my bed. Clove switched off the lights and in no time I was asleep.


	6. Chapter 6

It was Thursday morning and after my third night of interrupted sleep I was struggling to stay away in maths class. We'd already had science and history that morning and I was officially dead on my feet. Or chair. Mr Odair was speaking and I suddenly realised he was explaining what Clove and I had already gone over last night. I nudged her and she flashed me a rare smile and winked. He set a few questions for us and we worked through them comfortably, Clove leaning over for a glance at my working out every few minutes. Everyone was working away quietly so Mr Odair handed a pile of papers that I recognised as our quizzes to a boy in the front row. He was obviously instructed to hand them out, matching the name on the front of the quiz with the labels we were all wearing on our shirts. A second later I realised that meant he would clearly be able to see each person's score as it was marked on the front. The tall and lanky red-head made his way around the room, smirking at people I guess hadn't received the best score. The teacher started to look worried and I wondered if he was thinking back to yesterday when he'd said the tests were for his eyes only. Idiot.

The boy's pace was tantalizingly slow, until he finally made it to my desk and plonked my quiz down without looking at me. 14 out of 15, not bad. The boy headed back to the front row, then to a girl in the 3rd row and then finally, grinning, he headed over to Clove.

"Wow!" He hooted, clearly enjoying his time in the spotlight, "And I thought careers were meant to be smart! Obviously money is everything 'ey? 2 out of 15! Didn't they teach you anything at that stuck-up school of yours?"

Clove's eyes flashed with anger and she ripped the sheet from him, causing it to tear down the middle.

"Oh careful little girl, wouldn't want to ruin it. I'd have thought you'd wanna frame that one."

That was it. I was about to jump out of my seat but Clove had beaten me to it and the boy was suddenly scrambling backwards as he realised he'd picked on the wrong girl.

"Why don't you just shut up you fucking ginger" Clove spat back, both her hands clenched into fists.

"EXCUSE ME!" Mr Odair roared and swiftly stepped between them. "Both of you out now!"

"But-" Clove started to protest.

"Now!"

Clove glared at him with what could only be described as a death stare and stalked out, slamming the door behind her. The boy shuffled out after her and Mr Odair instructed us to continue on with our work and then followed. Whispers and laughter immediately broke out, all in support of the boy whose name was apparently Tyson.

"Did you hear her? What a spastic!"

"Tyson's lucky he didn't get punched into tomorrow! She looked crazy!"

"Are you kidding? The girl's a midget; she probably would've broken her hand if she tried anything.

I sat at my desk fuming. Had these people even seen the same fight I had? For Tyson to say what he had was completely out of line. I wondered briefly if Clove was ok and mentally slapped myself. This was Clove we were talking about. She was probably sitting in the principal's office already thinking about more studying to improve herself. I sighed and went back to my work, trying to shut out the jabbering losers around me.

Training was relatively uneventful bar the fact Marvel was babbling nonstop about the party that night at the top of his voice. Jaylan made a late entrance and he excitedly sprinted over to formally invite her ("Oi! You! You coming tonight? Are ya? Are ya?")

Cinna seemed to turn a blind eye to the whole thing, though I wondered if that meant he'd be making an appearance halfway through the night to shut it down. I headed over to Gale as Marvel was boasting loudly about how many shots he was going to be able to hold tonight.

"I thought they said there wasn't going to be drinks?" I asked Gale, slightly worried.

"I'm guessing there will be, I can't imagine those guys holding a party without alcohol. Why, you're not worried are you?"

"No not really. I've never drunk before though, you know that."

He shrugged. "Yeah I know, neither have I. But there's a first time for everything right? I's not like we'd get the chance at home and anyway, if we don't like it we can always stop. It's just a bit of fun."

"Yeah I know," I replied as he loaded an arrow and casually shot it straight into the yellow area of the target, "I just don't want anything to go wrong you know."

"I'm sure Peeta will be there to save you if you need it." He grinned.

"Oh God please no. Did you see how quick he decided to come to the party once I said yes? What if he makes a move or something?"

Gale laughed, "I'd pay to see that! Just punch him in the nose and tell him you like girls, I'm sure he'll get the point."

I rolled my eyes, "Oh yeah, sounds fool proof."

"It is! Speaking of which, how are you and Clovely going?"

"Clove. And we're fine, nothing to report."

"Really? Well if I were you I'd stop worrying about Peeta making a move on you and start worrying about her if the way she was eyeing you yesterday at bowling is anything to go by."

"What? Clove? At me? No she wasn't! What are you talking about? Gale!" I called after him but he simply grinned at me over his shoulder as he went to join in a mini shooting game some others had started.

Clove wasn't at dinner so I put two and two together and stuffed some food into my pockets to take to our room. Trying not to look ridiculously suspicious I made my escape and pushed the door to our room open with my butt.

"Hey Clove!" I cheerfully greeted the girl lying on her back, working on her wood carving with it held over her face.

"Hey Fire girl." She called back and quickly jumped up at the sight of what I was carrying, "Oh lucky, I'm starving."

"This is for you idiot." I laughed and tipped the food onto her bed, settling myself next to her.

"Oh!" she exclaimed surprised, "Thank you!"

"No problem, though I'm starting to think I should've brought more." I watched in disbelief as she devoured the pile.

"Oh no this is good!" She mumbled happily through a mouthful of bread.

"Did they seriously stop you from having dinner?" I asked her as I helped myself to a strawberry that was only half squished.

"Yup. I had to wait for half an hour outside the principal's office, then he called me in and lectured me for like an hour." She stuffed another roll into her mouth between sentences, "and THEN he said to go grab what I could of lunch before training because I wasn't allowed dinner."

"That's so harsh! For what? Swearing?"

"Yeah. The boy got the same thing I'm pretty sure."

"That's stupid, what he did was so much worse."

She shrugged, "I'm used to it, it happens a lot at my school, I guess I just didn't expect it to start happening so soon here. He's lucky anyway, I should've taken him out while I had the chance."

"Taken him out? He was massive!"

"Only in height. He was a stick and he looked like a pushover."

I started to laugh, "Did you see how he started backing away as soon as you stood up? He was so scared."

"He knew I was about to beat him up." Clove sniggered.

I checked the clock on Clove's bedside table. "Damn, 8 already? I better get ready."

"Where are you going?" Clove asked curiously.

"To the party! Aren't you?"

"Oh you're going to that? No way, this time I'm actually going to get more of my carving done."

"Clove! Won't the careers being expecting you there?"

"Nah, they know I wouldn't go. Parties are really not my thing. You sure you're gonna go?"

"Yeah, it's just a bit of fun right?"

"Whatever you say." She'd already lost interest in the conversation and was back to her work. I stood and gathered my clothes and towel for a shower.

The shower was once again amazing, and I returned to the equally amazing room dressed in my best clothes. Which meant worn out jeans and one of my less battered jackets. Clove saw me and raised her eyebrow.

"You can't wear that Fire girl!" She leaped up and pulled a jumper of hers our of the wardrobe, apparently appalled I meant to go to the party in my old jacket. "Try this, it's too big for me."

She chucked the jumper at me and I pulled it on. It was faded red and made of cotton, something I definitely wasn't used to wearing. She looked me over and I felt myself turning red as she judged me.

"Yep that's better. Oh and I just thought of something else, pass me your phone."

I picked my nokia off the table where I'd left it last night, I didn't generally carry it around because no one ever rang me. I passed it over and she fiddled with it, and within seconds handed it back.

"Ok I put my number in but I registered it as one of your numbers on the keypad. So if you press number 2, and then ring, it will ring me straight away. Got it? Just in case."

"Oh great, thanks." I smiled at her gratefully, "How'd you know how to that?"

"I had one of them when I was like 7 or 8."

"Right." It figured. I'd only scraped together enough money for my phone by the time I was 15 years old. "So am I ready now?"

"Yup, all ready to go!" She said, satisfied with her work. "Now I can finally get some peace around here."

"Aren't you going to be bored?"

"Nah, I don't get bored when I'm working."

"You should meet Gale, he's exactly the same."

She looked up sharply.

"That the big guy? He your boyfriend?

"What?" I laughed, "No, no he's just my best friend."

"Oh good." she replied and went back to her work.

I wanted to ask what she meant by that but I decided against it and just said goodbye, before leaving to go meet Gale in his room. The corridor echoed weirdly as my footsteps slapped the hard floor and I shivered. It was already 9 and the place was deserted, I guess the younger kids were in their rooms and the older ones were at or making their way to the party. I finally found room 94 and went inside to find the three boys already there.

"Katniss!" Thresh greeted me cheerfully, wearing a singlet that showed off his arms and shoulders and made me fear slightly for my life, "Looking snazzy!"

I giggled at his choice of words and returned the compliment. Peeta was making some finishing touches to his hair and Gale was furiously searching for his last clean sock that he apparently knew was 'definitely around here somewhere.' Honestly, you'd think we were going to the races or something the way we were all making an effort. Eventually Peeta's hair had finally cooperated, Gale settled for a used sock and we were out the door.

The three boys and I made our way across the icy grass that crunched loudly under our feet. Peeta was swivelling his head side to side as though doing his best impression of a surveillance camera.

"What if they have guard dogs out here or something?"

"They wouldn't, we're still on the property." Gale replied, though he took a nervous glance around.

Personally I thought that with Thresh and Peeta combined it would the dogs that had the problem, but I was a bit worried about being caught too. As soon as we rounded the corner and had our first sight of the sheds we could hear the music pumping. There was a bass beat in the song that could probably be heard for kilometres.

"Aren't they going to be heard?" I asked confused

"It's the careers," Gale shrugged, "Maybe the teachers are scared too."

It was a fair point I thought as we stepped inside and were greeted by Marvel jumping in front of us with a can in one hand and a plastic cup in the other. I quickly dodged around him, careful not to get any of the liquid on Clove's jumper and we made a beeline for the food table. The food was amazing, only snacks, but such luxuries we would never even imagine having at a party at home. There were crisps, chocolates, lollies, pasties and more. There was even a funny shaped brown thing that only Thresh was brave enough to try and then happily informed were chocolate covered strawberries. After demolishing about 20 strawberries I turned to find some girl offering me a drink which I eagerly accepted, all that chocolate was making my throat dry. I started to chug it down and suddenly realised the mistake I'd made.

"What is this!?" I spluttered, "It's horrible!"

Peeta took a look at it, "Maybe vodka? I think that's the right colour."  
"Well it's disgusting. Don't they have water or something?"

After a few laps of the shed I discovered that no, they did not have water. In the meantime Gale had spotted Jaylan from archery and had gone to strike up conversation and Peeta and Thresh had spotted their buddies from weightlifting and had also headed off. Since it seemed this was all I was going to get, I slowly drunk the rest of the cup, the taste burning my throat a bit. I was feeling a bit sick just from the taste and decided to go head into the dance floor where I could maybe recognise someone from archery to talk to. Big mistake. 'Call Me Maybe' was playing as request of Glimmer and all around me people were dancing with arms and random body parts flying everywhere. As I dodged a stray leg from someone who was unsuccessfully trying to break dance I took a glance at my jumper and realised it was going to be ruined by the end of the night, there were already big stains on my arm and over my belly button. I scrambled away from someone who was heading straight at me while fist pumping and ran smack into the back of Cato. Oops.

"Well hey there." Cato turned around and sneered at me, "You look a little lost."

"Err, no" I stammered, "No I'm good."

"Tried any of this? It's the best." He shoved a fluro green can into my hand, "Down that and you'll be having the night of your life in no time." He winked and moved away.

It crossed my mind for a second that maybe the drink was poisoned or something, but there were tons of people drinking the same thing so it was probably fine. I took a sip and discovered it tasted much nicer than the other one I'd had. By the time I found Gale again almost half the can was gone.

"Gale!" I greeted him, "Where've you been?"

"I was just talking to a couple of the guys from archery. Where'd you get that? I'm parched."

"Cato gave it to me. Gale why's the music so loud?"

"Cato? Maybe I can find my buddy Marvel to give me some." He didn't seem to hear the second half of my sentence and was wandering off.

"'Your buddy?'" I called after him. Gale hated Marvel, what was he talking about? Maybe he was already drunk. And why did they keep turning the music up louder? My head was starting to pound. I finally found my way off the maze of a dance floor and sat on a table, leaning my head back against the wall. The can in my hand was somehow empty, I must have drunk it all. Through the mass of people I thought I saw Peeta coming towards me.

"Peeta!" I called out, "Peeta come over here!"

The boy looked at me and scurried off. Strange. Maybe that wasn't Peeta. Suddenly Marvel appeared in front of me with Cato by his side.

"Hey Kat, how's it going?" Marvel grinned at me, shoving an extremely small cup into my hand. I wondered why anyone would have any need for such a tiny cup.

"We're doing shots." Cato informed me, and I noticed me and Marvel were holding several of the tiny cups. "On three we scull, ok? One, two, three!"

I downed the liquid like he'd instructed and immediately retched, the taste was feral. The boys laughed and picked up another one each, Marvel handing me mine.

"First time? You'll get used to it. Let's go again."

We drunk again and he was right, the taste wasn't that bad the second time. Cato shoved another one into my hand but I accidently sloshed it onto the floor. The boys roared with laughed and handed me a 4th which I managed to hold. I tipped my head back to take it and when I faced forwards again I found Glimmer there, looking at me like a piece of vermin.

"Woah, why are you so close to my face?" I asked her, scrambling back further on the table.

"I'm like 3 metres away." she scoffed. I squinted at her. Oh, so she was. How strange. At the moment she was clinging onto Cato's arm and squealing at him. That's what it sounded like anyway, but when I paid closer attention I realised she was asking him something.

"Why are you hanging with her Cato? You can seriously be bothered spending your time getting her wasted? Come dance with me, please!" She gave him her best pleading look and I noticed her hand was under his shirt.

"You're right, let's go babe." He replied, his eyes travelling down to where her hand was. They made it about halfway to the dance floor before they were making out.

"Gross." I muttered and shut my eyes for a second. My head was still throbbing. Suddenly I felt breath on my face and I snapped my eyes open to see Marvel inches from my face.

"Marvel." I tried to yell, but it came out as more of a "Marble!"

I shoved past him and off the table, and he let me go. Where was the food table? I was sure I'd heard eating bread could stop you from being drunk, right? I turned in a circle and promptly fell over. I groaned. My back was killing and I could hardly tell which way was up. I staggered into a standing position and finally spotted the elusive table. Damn, no food left. I wanted to leave, this wasn't fun anymore. I couldn't find anyone and I could hardly stand up. The music was so loud I could hardly hear myself think, yet I could clearly hear everyone else shouting and yelling. What time was it anyway? I checked my phone. 1 am? That couldn't be right. There was a thought pulling at me from somewhere in my brain. Of course! Clove! I could ring her and she'd get me out of here. I pulled my phone out again and dropped it. Damn it. Picked it up again and poked the number 2, then the green button. Was that right, I just had to do that and she'd come get me? I couldn't remember. I saw a group of boys over the other side of the room. They had to be the weightlifting boys. I put my phone away and made my way over.

I got there and the group was gone. That was strange. I was so tired. Maybe dancing would wake me up. The floor was just as packed as before, and I found myself jumping up and down with the masses. Someone's hands settled on my waist and I whipped around. It was Marvel again so I smiled warily at him.

"Follow me!" He called so I nodded and followed him off the floor. I hoped he was taking me home. Instead we stopped at the wall of the shed, where there were only a few tired people slumped or sitting against the side.

"Why are we here?" I complained. That walk didn't help my head at all. Marvel just grinned at me. His breath was feral, I could smell it from here. I turned away and suddenly spotted who I was looking for, Clove! Her tiny figure was framed in the doorway as she stood on tiptoes, head turning from side to side. I tried to call out to her, but no sound came out. I then raised my hand to wave but all that happened was that I hit Marvel on the shoulder and suddenly remembered he was still there.

"Marvel." I groaned, "You're breath is making my head spin."

"So sorry babe." He replied. There was pressure on my stomach and I looked down to find his hands there.

"Hey! What'cha doing?" There was no reply and suddenly my mouth was smothered by his.

I flailed my arms around and tried to shove him off me, but he was too strong.

"Stop." I choked out, turning my head to the side, but he simply pulled my face back towards him and kissed me again. His hands slipped under my shirt and I squirmed but couldn't get away. His sticky fingers were trying to find my bra clip when suddenly he was wrenched off me and I gasped, thankful for the air. I looked to my left and saw him pinned against the wall, Clove's hand gripping his collar and her forearm pressed hard into his chest. She drew her free hand back and there was a huge crack as her fist connected with his jaw and he dropped straight to the floor. I found myself slipping down the wall onto the floor until Clove's strong arms caught me and pulled me back up.

"Please don't punch me." I begged her and covered my face.

She didn't reply but laughed and slipped her hand around my waist and my right arm around her shoulder.

"C'mon loser we're going home." She nudged me and we started walking until finally, finally we made it out of the stupid shed.

The world was spinning and the grass was somehow filled with mountains that I kept tripping over, but I never fell with the small girl's arms tightly around me.

"Oh Clove I'm so sorry, you didn't have to come and get me, I made you get out of bed at this early in the morning, you should be sleeping, oh but you'd probably be awake anyway right since you do maths but I'm not sure if it's two o'clock yet do you know what time it is Clove? Oh shit, how will I help you with your maths now, oh we can still do it when we get back to the room right? It's ok I can still teach you and I'm sorry look what happened to your jumper but it wasn't my fault I promise I tried my best to look after it but it just-"

"Shut up idiot." Clove poked me, "You're not making any sense."

"But your jumper-"

"It's fine, I gave you an old one cause I knew that would happen. It doesn't matter ok? The maths will be fine and everything will be fine, everything's perfect."

"You're perfect." I heard myself say. Wait. Why did I say that.

"You're drunk Katniss, just shush."

Suddenly she was lifting me up and I was on a bed back in our room.

"Wait there." she called, so I shut my eyes and waited. Sleep was so close to pulling me away, but I tried hard to fight it. I could hear here shuffling around, her shoes landing on the floor, more shuffling and suddenly my jumper was pulled off. She locked the door, switched the main light off and the bed then sunk under her extra weight as she crawled on next to me. I was lying on my side and she was behind me, I wanted to roll over and thank her for everything she'd done but I didn't have the energy. The last thing I remembered before blacking out was Clove's arm settling protectively over my waist.

* * *

**Thanks so much for your reviews guys, you're all too kind :) And someone gave me a promo on tumblr which was completly adorable, so thank you! :)**


	7. Chapter 7

**Good things come to those who wait ;) I've used a song in this chapter called The Only Exception By Paramore, once you get up to that bit it works best if you listen to it while reading :)**

* * *

The sound of water running was coming from the bathroom as I slowly came to my senses and became aware of bed I was lying in. Clove's warm arms were gone but the messy sheets just behind me meant she'd obviously stayed the whole night with me and the thought gave me a kind of warm fuzzy feeling. At the moment the radio was blaring and she was singing along to some new Taylor Swift song. From my side of the wall I hummed along with her as I rolled off the bed and found some clothes for the day. The jumper I'd worn last night lay strewn on the end of the bed with stains covering it and I averted my eyes to stop the guilt that panged at me whenever I saw it. The memories were groggy, which I was thankful for because I was sure I never wanted to remember them. Apart from the bit where Clove knocked out Marvel. And something else important was there in the back of my brain - we were walking home, I was staggering and rambling about nothing and something had happened.

"Oh no" I groaned out loud as it suddenly hit me. _No, no, no, no, no._ I'd told her she was perfect. My previous good mood flew out the window as I sunk down on my bed. What would she have thought when I said that? Did she know I liked her? Did I even like her?

Well I could answer that one I decided. The thought of her arms wrapped around me as we drifted off to sleep spread a smile across my face instantly. The look of utter disgust on her face as she glared at Marvel before punching his lights out. The way her smile sent the butterflies in my stomach into disarray. I sighed and tried to act normal as Clove entered the room again and smiled warmly at me as I walked past her for my turn in the shower.

We were sitting in maths class when Mr Odair cheerily reminded us we were having a maths test and I felt like slamming my head into a brick wall. With all that happened last night I'd of course had no chance to study maths with Clove. I pictured her sitting alone in the early hours of the morning and immediately felt guilty. The tests were passed around and just as I feared Clove and I had only covered about half the topics in our sessions. She sat with her tongue poking out and her pen spinning, a clear sign she was concentrating hard. I finished easily within the time limit and took the chance to scope out my classmates. There were a couple I recognised from last night and I wondered if they remembered me. I must've made the biggest fool of myself by getting accidently drunk. Never again.

"How was it?" I asked Clove after class as we left for our respective trainings.

"Pretty good," She smiled, completely surprising me "I think I got about a quarter of them right which is really good for me. You're a really good teacher Fire girl."

"That's good then! And thanks but I have a name you know."

She shrugged carelessly. "Fire girl suits you."

"How?"

She opened her mouth to answer but seemed to think better of it and simply gave me a pat on the butt as she headed off to the boxing ring.

Everyone at training was settled into their routine by now so the initial tense atmosphere had been swapped for an easy, relaxed one. Most people were quiet and tired after last night, and even Marvel was sullen, and sporting a brilliant purple bruise on the side of his face. He watched me silently as I walked past to meet Gale at the corner we seemed to have adopted but I couldn't interpret his expression. Gale turned around to greet me and I had to bite my lip to keep myself from laughing. He looked as I imagined I did to, as though he hadn't slept in a week.

"I've got a splitting headache" He complained as we paced out the regulation distance from the target, "I thought drinking was meant to be fun, that was pretty much the worst experience of my life. You know I woke up in my bed this morning with no clue how I got there, and no shirt!? It's nowhere in my room!"

I laughed, "Sounds like you had it as bad as me."

"What happened to you last night anyway? You just disappeared!"

"I was looking for you! You were off looking for Jaylan remember?"

"Oh yeah" He grinned sheepishly, "That didn't really work out for me."

"Maybe she doesn't go for guys drunk off their face."

"That could be it." He chuckled. "And I'll tell you what else happened, this morning I got up and half of Marvel's face is purple! He's been in a massive fight obviously. He tried to tell me he gave the other guy a bashing but I don't believe him, his cheek's basically been deformed! It's great actually."

"Must've been someone strong to beat Marvel in a fight" I commented and smirked to myself.

"Probably, he's pretty big. He'd have no chance against Cato though, maybe it was him."

I was about to reply and tell him about Cato and Glimmer but Cinna walked over at that moment and asked us to get a move on.

"We were just about to have a shoot off." Gale explained, "It's a game we play back home where you get 10 shots in a row and the person with the most 10's wins, no other scores count."

"Go ahead then." Cinna smiled.

I'd had first shot yesterday so it was Gale's turn to be first up. He took up his stance and let fly his 10 arrows in quick succession. From when we'd first started the contest back when we were children we'd had an unspoken rule to try and take the 10 shots as quickly as possible to add a degree of difficulty. Gale shot 7 bullseyes, a good score considering how fast he was shooting. He stepped back and I took his place and double checked my bow was ready to go. It was all good so I loaded my first one and sent it flying towards the target. My first 5 all landed bullseyes, the sixth was an 8, and I finished off with another four 10's. The perfect conditions inside the shed made shooting a lot easier but it was still a brilliant result and I took a bow to jokingly mock Gale while Cinna clapped. I shot a wide grin at Gale and for some reason he smirked back at me. Slowly I looked to the left and immediately saw the reason for his expression. Standing to the left of Cinna with her perfect little mouth hanging wide open was Clove.

"How did you do that?!" She gaped, absolutely dumbstruck.

"Practice" I choked out. The shock of seeing her so unexpectedly had me feeling like I'd been punched in the stomach.

"I didn't know- I mean, wow you're really good! Why didn't you tell me you could shoot like that?"

"It never really came up in conversation, you never even asked what sport I was here for remember?"

"Oh yeah" She grinned sheepishly. "I-"

_"Ahem_" Cinna coughed and I suddenly remembered he was still there. Behind him Gale was wagging his eyebrows at me to the point that he looked ridiculous. "I believe you're here to give me a message?"

"Oh, um yeah" Clove stammered, looking like rabbit caught in the headlights "Yeah Mr Crane told me to let you know there's a staff meeting on at 4, um, this afternoon.

"Right, thank you." He smiled at her pointedly until she realised she was meant to be leaving.

"Ah yup, ok, right. See you later Fire girl."

"See ya" I replied and she hurried off, trying to maintain her usual swagger but in her hurry she really just looked like she was scurrying away.

"Well that was interesting." Cinna commented, his face unreadable, "I wouldn't have picked you two as friends. Excuse my nosiness."

"No it's fine, we're roommates that's how she knows me. Had you already met her?"

"I do some boxing coaching as well as archery and everyone in the boxing business knows Clove. She's an extremely talented kid and she works harder than anyone, personally I have a lot of respect for her." I smiled, she worked hard that was for sure. "It's just, curious." Cinna continued. "In all the times I've seen Clove, and I've known her for several years, I have never heard her say more than a sentence to anyone. She never speaks unless spoken to. And you just had a conversation with her."

I could feel my face heating up even though the conversation shouldn't have been embarrassing.

"I'm not sure how it happened really," I shrugged "She was really cold with me at first but now she's super relaxed, and friendly."

Cinna was gazing at me intently with an odd expression. "You must have been good to her. She trusts no one, and I can see she trusts you. It's nice for her to have someone."

Apparently that was all he had to say as he walked off to talk to another group further along. I still had so many questions though, my mind was swirling. Gale kindly interrupted my thoughts.

"She is _so_ into you!"

"Shut up Gale," I sighed "She's not."

He simply back at me. "You actually believe that? How can you not see it?"  
I half shrugged.

"The way she looks at you, it's not like Peeta, not like he just wants to stand and gape at you all day long, it's more like...like she would do anything for you."

I scoffed, "C'mon Gale you're being weird."

"I'm helping you! You like her right?"

"I-" I let out a long breath, "Yeah I think so."

"How much?"

"What's with all the questions?" I muttered. I was hesitating, but this was Gale I was talking to. I could tell Gale anything. He was waiting patiently for me to say something more. "Fine. I think I'm in love with her." As soon as the words left my mouth I knew they were true. How could they not be, with the way I felt around her.

"I KNEW IT!" Gale crowed and I rolled my eyes as he pranced around. "I knew it, I knew it, I KNEW IT."

"Yes ok, you knew it, good for you. How 'bout you keep quiet or everyone else's is going to know too."

After dinner I'd gone to Gale's with the others for some quality down time, consisting of playing cards, which was surprisingly fun. It was 8pm now and I was heading home, my footsteps once again echoing loudly down the empty corridor. I reached the last corner when something familiar about the angry voices coming from the next hallway stopped me. I crept up to the corner and leant against the wall, clearly able to hear the argument.

"I'm trying to help you! Why won't you meet him?" Came the harsh voice that sounded familiar

"I already said, I don't want to! It's not like he needs you to hold his hand and go around setting up girls for him anyway." My heart jumped as I realised Clove was the other voice.

"And what am I meant to say to him? I already promised you'd hook up with him!"

"Well that's your problem now isn't it! Maybe I have a little more respect for myself than some other people!"

"Maybe you're frigid."

There was a cold silence and I could picture Clove glaring at the boy.

"I'm not-"

"Oh really? When was the last time you hooked up with someone huh?

There was another silence.

"Yeah I thought so. Hell just a live a little why don't you? There's nothing to lose and I'm going out of my way to-"

"I don't need your help, ok? Just stay out of my life."

"You know you're going to be like 50 years old, sitting alone, no family, no-"

"Shut up!" Clove yelled, "I like someone! Ok? Happy now? So piss off and tell Kai to stay away from me."

A door slammed shut and a few seconds later I heard footsteps approaching. Quickly standing back off the wall I gathered my composure and headed round the corner, nearly running smack into Cato who stormed past without looking at me.

I stopped outside the door to our room and pressed my ear to the door. No sound came from the inside, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to go in yet, I didn't want there to be any chance of Clove thinking I'd heard her conversation. I decided to wait a few minutes and sunk down on the floor, giving myself some time to think. I couldn't help the gloom that was already settling onto me. Clove liked someone. I guess I never fully believed we could ever work out, but it was nice to dream about. He was probably some career guy. I wondered if he was a boxer too, and the thought of her perving on a shirtless teenage boy while he practiced on a punching bag entered my mind and made my stomach churn.

From inside the room I heard music start to play and I slowly stood up to listen. I couldn't help pushing the door open to get closer to the sound of the quiet melody. Clove's eyes snapped up to meet mine from where she was sitting cross legged on her bed, strumming an old but beautiful looking guitar.

"Hey Fire girl" She greeted me, her fingers had ceased their playing the moment I walked in, "Something up?"

Apparently I wasn't very good at masking my feeling then.

"Nah I'm good," I smiled at her and settled on my own bed, facing her, with a gap between us of about a metre. "I'm just tired. You can keep playing, don't let me stop you."  
"Nah it's ok." She replied and made to put down the guitar.

"No please, it was nice."

She hesitated, but after studying me for a few seconds she started her apparently random strumming again.

"Did you teach yourself?" I asked.

"Yup."

"Is there anything you can't do?" She only grinned as I went on. "Seriously, you could be a famous singer or something."

"Singers have to be likeable."  
"Good point" I conceded and she smiled light-heartedly. If I'd said that 3 days earlier she would have taken offence.

There was comfortable silence for a few minutes as I watched her play and she strummed whatever floated into her mind.

"Will you sing me something?" I asked before I could stop myself

"What?" she stopped playing and looked up at me quickly.

"On that. Sing and play a song." I smiled in what I hoped was an encouraging way.

"Uh, nah I don't think so. Sorry."

"C'mon, please." I begged, drawing out the 'e'

She studied me again and then sighed. "Fine. I'll play you one song ok?"

"Ok, ok go" I grinned happily

She rolled her eyes and started to play in the intro, focusing on her hands and not looking at me.

She opened her mouth and it suddenly hit I'd never heard her sing in the same room as me before.

_"When I was younger I saw my daddy cry, and curse at the wind. He broke his own heart and I watched as he tried to reassemble it."_

My breath hitched, her eyes determinedly focused on her guitar

_"And my mamma swore that she would, never let herself forget. And that was the day that I promised, I'd never sing of love, if it does not exist."_

The silence between the lines was intense, as though neither of us were breathing, until she took a deep breath and finally looked up at me.

_"But darling you are, the only exception. You are the only exception, you are the only exception. You are, the only exception."_

Her cheeks were turning red but she kept her eyes trained on mine and continued as I sat transfixed. Her voice suited the song absolutely perfectly and the emotion in it had somehow formed a lump in my throat.

_"And I've always lived like this, keeping a comfortable, distance. And up until now I had sworn to myself that I'm content with loneliness. Because none of it was ever worth the risk - well you are the only exception."_

She took another deep breath and glanced down to check her hands before focusing on me once again.

_"I've got a tight grip on reality, but I can't, let go of what's in front of me here. I know you're leaving in the morning, when you wake up, leave me with some kind of proof it's not a dream"_

She hit the chorus again and I realised my mouth was hanging open.

_"And I'm on my way to believing."_

The outro faded off as I sat and gaped in awe.

"Ta da." she said meekly.

"You're amazing" I breathed.

"Thank you." She smiled shyly. "I've never sung for anyone before."

A bubble of happiness filled me at her words. "I'm glad I could be your first then." Then I realised what I'd said sounded dirty and I felt my face heating up to match the colour of hers.

She ignored the double meaning and rolled off the bed to get herself ready to sleep while I flopped backwards on my own bed.

The song choice was so...strange. Maybe it was the only one she knew how to play, but somehow I doubted it. And the way she stared into my eyes while she sung and her cheeks colouring under her freckles made my head spin.

By the time we were both ready for bed it was 9.30 and Clove had climbed into bed, ready to turn the light off.

"Not so fast." I told her, and started hefting my bedside table from between our beds over to the wardrobe.

"Uh, what are you doing?"

"Moving things" I grunted with effort while she watched with her eyebrow raised.

"Move yours over there too." I told her as I shoved my bed towards hers. She did as I asked and looked on in curiosity as I closed the gap between the bed and stood up.

"Right, get your maths out, we're doing it now."

"What?"

"You think I'm getting up at 3 in the morning again?" I asked her as I went over and locked the door. "I can hardly stay awake in class anymore."

I turned around to find her standing in exactly the same spot, looking stunned. I went and sat on my bed and waited expectantly, a little smile settling across her lips.

"I think I -" she started to say something but stopped, "I mean, no don't worry. Ok I'll get my stuff."

After an hour we'd covered another chapter and Clove's confidence was rising new heights. I sat watching her, struggling to keep myself from beaming as she solved one of the harder problems with no issues at all.

"Done!" she exclaimed and placed her books under her bed carefully. I'd learnt that she kept them there so no one would see them if they came into our room. She switched off the light and the room was turned pitch black. I lay back down and felt both our beds shift and as Clove shuffled herself over until her back was pressed into my front and the top of her head was just below my chin.

"Uh-" I started but couldn't really think of anything to say. She didn't reply but reached blindly behind her until she'd located my hand and draped my arm over her stomach. She sighed in content and within minutes she was asleep. I, on the other hand, willed myself to stay along for as long as I could, wanting to remember this feeling forever.


	8. Chapter 8

I woke up Monday morning with Clove lying on top of me, her left hand a fist that gripped my shirt tightly. It was time to get up but I wanted to hold onto her for as long as I could, she looked too peaceful to disturb.

My first weekend at the camp had flown by and the other tributes and I had spent most of our time out in town exploring. We'd watched a football match, gone to restaurants for dinner, done some window shopping and checked out all the best cinemas. I'd missed Clove while we were out but she assured me she was much happier at home by herself, and had accompanied the careers on a few of their trips out anyway. In the time she'd had to herself she'd managed to complete her carving which, at my insistence, was now displayed proudly on the top of her bedside table. I'd also discovered that she'd been doing exercises in the bathroom every morning and night but now she was comfortable with me I had the pleasure of watching her grind out around a hundred push ups every night, along with various core exercises.

The small girl in my arms stirred and I was pulled back from my thoughts, my thumb tracing vague circles on the back of her neck. I could tell she was awake now but she refused to move and snuggled her head further into the crook between my neck and shoulder.

"Clove..." I called softly. "Rise and shine sleeping beauty."

"Don't ever call me that." Came her disgusted response, muffled from her face being pressed into my skin. "It makes me sound a princess or something."

I laughed. "Well princess of boxing, you've gotta get ready for your big, big day. Ready to bash some people up?"

She groaned and slid off me, sitting cross legged on the dip where our beds joined, her hair an absolute mess with a few random bits sticking to her forehead.

"What time is it?" She asked, her voice still croaky.

"6.30"

"No way. It has to be like 5."

"Maybe if you hadn't made us watch that movie last night you wouldn't be so tired!"

"That was necessary to toughen you up." She grinned. After our maths yesterday she'd checked the TV paper that sat next to the TV at the end of our beds and happily exclaimed that her favourite movie Orphan was playing.

_"We are NOT watching that." I'd told her flatly. "It's late anyway, you've got your first competition tomorrow."_

_"We so are! My TV, my decision. Plus I don't need sleep for that, I'm a gun. I could win it with my eyes closed." She hopped up and turned the TV on, quickly flicking to the channel where the movie was just starting._

_ "Do we have to?" I whined, "I hate horror movies. And this is half my TV anyway, so I say we're not watching it."_

_"This isn't horror! It's just a scary movie! Scary movies are the best, they give you adrenaline rushes."_

_I scanned my brain for an excuse as to why I couldn't watch it without giving away that I found scary movies just too...scary. "But-"_

_"Shush." She hushed me by jumping back onto the bed and flinging her arm around my shoulder, covering my mouth with her hand. "You have to shut up while it's on or you ruin the suspense."_

_"I didn't agree to this" I tried to complain but with her hand there it came out more as "mmmmhhhhhfffffffff"_

_The movie was just as bad as I'd suspected and as creepy as anything. I distracted myself by focusing on random objects around the room._

_"Oi" Clove poked me, her arm now shifted from the start of the movie so it was around my waist. "Watch, this is a good bit."_

_Reluctantly dragging my eyes back to the screen I saw the creepy girl making her way into the room with a knife held by her side._

_"What the hell." I muttered, my body tensing up. Clove gave me a squeeze and studied my face as I watched the girl set down some food in front of her father. My body relaxed, turns out she didn't want to kill him after all. I glanced sideways and found Clove still staring._

_"What are you looking at?" I asked self-consciously._

_"You're so cute!" She was grinning widely at me._

_"Shut up." I blushed, "Watch the movie, you're the only one enjoying it."_

_She didn't reply but happily rested her head on my shoulder and returned her attention to the movie. Within minutes I'd given up on the film and was asleep._

"It didn't toughen me up anyway, I fell asleep halfway through."

"I know." she replied. "And I watched the whole thing and now I'm pretty much dead."

"I warned you. Should have listened to me hmmm."

"No way." She grinned playfully and hit me with the pillow from her bed.

"Oh really?" I laughed and gave her a bash on the side with my own pillow.

"Hey!" She took another shot and I ducked, and rolled away to the far side of the bed, laughing.

She scrambled after me and I screamed and tried to bat her away with my pillow but she simply smacked it away with her own and clambered on top of me. She raised the pillow above her head in slow motion and wiggled her eyebrows at me.

"I win!"

"No, no have mercy please!" I begged.

"I'm sorry, I can't do that." she teased and brought down the pillow onto my face slowly with a tiny thud.

"Ouch." I joked with my face covered and she laughed. "I give up, you're the greatest."

"Why thank you." she replied and shifted the pillow off me so I found her looking down at me, her face inches away.

"Um," I blinked after a few seconds as I suddenly became aware of the fact that she was sitting on me. "It's nearly time to go and-"

"Yeah I gotta shower." She replied quickly and within seconds was in the bathroom with the door closed.

I watched her go and then slowly brought my hand up to the space where her face had been just seconds ago. Sighing, I let my hand fall heavily back onto the bed and closed my eyes. I wanted her back already.

Our last class of the morning was geography, where we'd a quiz in which we had to name the capital cities of 50 different countries. As we scraped our chairs back and walked out I turned to Clove, "How'd you go in the quiz? It was so hard!"

"Really?" She looked at me, surprised, "I think I got everyone right."

"Are you kidding? I knew about 15 or something. How'd you do that?"

"Study."

"Right. Do you ever do anything but work? Don't you ever feel like having fun?"

"I do have fun sometimes. When I'm with you I have fun."

"All we do is study though" I laughed, a bit confused.

"It is fun though." She shrugged, "When I'm with you its fun."

I was still searching for a reply by the time we'd reached the hall where we split for our own areas.

"Well, gotta go kick some ass" She said cheerily,

"Good luck!" I smiled at her, "Make sure you win!"

She rolled her eyes, "I don't need good luck, I got this."

"Whatever you say." I held up my crossed fingers to show her and she gave me a hasty thumbs up in reply before heading off with a confident smirk.

Training was the same as always, except this time it was even harder than usual to keep Clove off my mind. I wondered if it was common for people to get hurt boxing, it seemed pretty dangerous to me.

By the time I made it back to dinner I was almost skipping with the combination of a successful session and the excitement of finding out how Clove went in her competition. Gale and I sat at our usual table and chatted to the others, while I watched impatiently as the careers made their way one by one to their table. Our table was served, then another, then the careers and Clove still wasn't there. I couldn't help thinking it was strange, she hated being late and was usually excessively early. I finished my dinner and there was still no Clove. I said goodbye, made my way back to our room and still no sign of her.

I decided to forget about it, Clove was 16, she didn't need me worrying and chasing after her. Gale texted me asking if I wanted to play darts in the downstairs game room with Thresh and Peeta and I texted him back a short "sure."

The games room was packed and I struggled to find the guys, finally seeing Peeta jumping and waving enthusiastically. The game was fun, and probably thanks to years of archery I didn't find darts to difficult and this time it was me gloating about my victories by the time we'd finished.

"What's wrong?" Gale asked me after the game, "You seem distracted."

"Nah it's nothing." I assured him, waving my hand. "I'm just dead tired. I stayed up watching a movie last night. I think I'm gonna go back now actually, I really need some sleep."  
"You sure?"

"Yeah, look I'll see you tomorrow ok?"

"Alright Catnip, cya."

I smiled and made my way back to the room quickly and hurriedly pushed the door open. Nothing, no one inside. I sighed and sat myself down on the bed. I decided I might as well actually get some rest while I waited for her to get back.

Next thing I knew it was 1am and I groaned as I looked around the room groggily. The bed was cold without the smaller girl's body there and I sat up, running my hands through my hair. It wasn't like her to be missing for so long, I knew she wouldn't be staying at any of the careers' rooms. She should've been back here hours ago, boasting about her win and studying with me. Suddenly it hit me where she could be, and I stood up quickly from the bed.

I was still dressed so I pushed the door open and made my way out into the halls, finding them still dimly light. I walked until I reached the part of the corridor where Clove and I usually parted ways after class, and for the first time took her path. This section of the building was completely unfamiliar and I checked every door I walked past, reading the sign on each one. Finally I found the one I was looking for, a door clearly marked 'Boxing arena', and noticed it had light coming from under it.

I pushed it open quietly and slipped into the stadium, careful not to let the door slam shut behind me. The only light in the room came from the ring in the centre where I saw a small figure. I smiled slightly and crept forward until I reached a chair in the second row, sat down, and for the first time watched Clove box. Her focus was intense as she danced and dodged around the punching bag she had set up, repeatedly throwing punch after punch. Her arms visibly shook with the effort and I wondered how many hours she must have been here. After a few minutes she eventually slowed, until she finally bent over, hands on her knees, breathing hard. I hopped up and walked to the side of the ring, the floor at shoulder level.

"Hey" I called out, startling the smaller girl so much that she leapt up and gasped. She looked around frantically and I giggled as she spotted me and a relaxed smile spread across her face.

"What are you doing here?" she asked as she came and crouched in front of me.

What should have been a relatively easy question quickly became impossible to answer, my throat suddenly dry with her right in front of me. She was wearing a simple black singlet that showed off her arms and shorts that came about halfway down her quads. Her shoulders and biceps were toned and strong, and I could see her abs through the tight fitting singlet. Her face was flushed and sweat dripped off her so that she was literally glowing.

"Coming to find you obviously" I managed to stutter out, tearing my eyes away from her chest that was still rising up and down, "It's 1o'clock in the morning you know"

"Yeah but I couldn't sleep" she shrugged and looked away, so I noticed for the first time the tears that were mingled with the sweat on her face.

"Clove, you're crying!"

"What? No I'm not" She replied, wiping at her eyes roughly "It's just allergies."

I reached up and wiped a stay tear off her face, her eyes following the path of my hand.

"How was your competition today?" I asked softly. She sniffed and looked away,

"I lost"

"You came last?" I exclaimed.

"No I didn't come last, I- I came second"

"Aww baby second is amazing! It's not - " The expression on Clove's face stopped my sentence mid-way and dread flooded through me as I realised what I'd said. _Shit. What did I just do. Oh God._ I swear I felt my stomach slip out of my body the same way the word had. Time stood still as my heart forgot to beat for seconds that felt like years. I could feel my face burning up. _Girl on fire. Ironic._ "I don't kno-" I tried to search for a way out but I was interrupted by her.

"Will you come watch my next competition?" She asked softly.

"What?" I spluttered, finally forcing myself to look at her again. She was gazing back at me steadily with the strange expression still there, curious, like a thousand realisations were hitting her all at once. She waited patiently while I gulped and tried desperately to remember how to form a sentence. "I mean of course. Yes. Yes of course I will I wouldn't miss it"

"Thank you" she smiled and slowly leaned forward, lifted the rope out of the way, and pressed her lips to mine.


	9. Chapter 9

"Hey baby" I heard as I woke up the next morning and looked down to see Clove grinning cheekily back up at me.

"asdjkghl" came the noise from me as I struggled to stop my face splitting in half from the huge smile that spread across it. She giggled as I covered my face with my arms and rolled onto my front.

"Aww someone's getting shy" she teased and snuggled her face into mine.

I rolled back over and she sat up and gazed down at me, a lazy smile on her face, and slowly traced her finger along my jaw.

"You're so pretty" she said quietly, causing me to blush madly. "And you're cute when you go red."

"Stop it" I laughed and she gave me her perfect lopsided grin, before leaning down and capturing my lips in hers again. I kissed her back with my arms wrapped softly around her neck. Her lips had lost their salty taste from last night but were still chapped and tasted like her.

I gazed at her shyly with my forehead pressed to hers while she just grinned and suddenly sat up. "C'mon we have to go to breakfast!" And with that she slapped her hands down on my breasts and jumped off.

"Clove!" I yelled, half spluttering from laughter, but she had already sprinted out the door with her stupid little giggle that made my stomach flip.

By the time I'd skipped my way down the hall and bounced into my seat the other tributes were all already eating.

"Morning!" I greeted them, tucking into some toast. "Wonderful day!"

Gale raised his eyebrows at me and everyone looked at me strangely.

"You can't even see outside from here." Peeta pointed out.

"Oh, well I've just got a great feeling about today."

"What is up with you?" Gale asked me incredulously.

"Oh you know, I'm just in a wonderful mood. Happens sometimes." I replied cheerfully.

"No it doesn't!" He frowned at me, "You're never like this!"

"Well quit being a mood killer and enjoy it why don't you." I grinned widely at him.

He started back at me with his eyes narrowed before shaking his head and returning to his cereal.

After breakfast I met with Clove and we made our way slowly to class.

"Hey Fire girl," She asked me, and I noticed her fingers were rapidly spinning a pen she was holding, "Since...what happened...are we like...um...like what are we now?"

"Well I guess..."I found myself struggling with my words just like she was at the unexpected question, "It depends on what you want I 'spose. I mean if you want to be then I guess we're..." I trailed off.

"Together?" she finished for me, her voice full of hope.

"If you want to be-" I was blushing as she gazed at me while we walked.

"I do." She cut in quickly, and then blushed herself. "I want you."

I laughed and she screwed up her nose and tried to make amends "No, no that didn't come out right I just meant I want to be with you. Yeah."

I beamed and gave her hand a quick squeeze before we turned into the room.

As a nice break we didn't have maths that day, however that meant Clove was acing everyone other class we had and decided this meant she didn't need to concentrate in class, therefore spending the entire lesson with her head on the desk staring at me.

"Clove!" I hissed, "Concentrate!"

"I know everything already." She attempted to whisper back, her voice not even remotely quiet.

"Well quit starting at me." I giggled as she pulled her best puppy-dog face.

"But you're so much more interesting." She whined, her voice earnest.

I shook my head and ripped a page out of my book and scribbled on the bottom 'draw me something,' before passing it over to her. She read it in curiosity before flashing me her mischievous grin that I hadn't even known existed before yesterday and jotted a quick picture, folded it up and sent it flying back onto my desk. I opened it and laughed at the huge love heart scrawled messily over the page.

'Since when are you such a softie? And draw a proper one!' I wrote inside the heart and passed it back.

"Fine." She mouthed at me and chose a pencil from her desk before settling down to work.

I watched her concentrate for a few seconds but started to get a feeling like someone was tugging on my heart and decided it was time to tune in to the teacher.

After class I was out first but Clove silently appeared at my side after a few seconds and placed the paper on top of my books.

"Look at it later." She smiled shyly at me.

"Ok," I smiled back, "And you can't stare at me in class like that!"

"Why?" She asked innocently.

"It's strange! I thought I must've had something on my face!" She smirked as I continued, "And people will notice anyway."

"Does that matter?"

"They could figure out what's going on."

"We don't even know what's going on." Clove pointed out.

"Seriously though, I don't want people to find out."

"Why?" She asked confused, her eyebrows knitted together and sounding offended.

"No, no it's not you, it's just...we're two girls. People will say things."

She shrugged, "I don't care, I'll punch them if they do. I can take care of myself."

"Yeah I know you can but I can't!"

"I'll punch people who say shit to you as well then."

"Clove." I pleaded, "Be reasonable. You can't just go around bashing everyone."

"I could, I'm strong enough."  
"No you're missing the point. Can we just keep it on the down low for now?"

"Sure." She shrugged and a smile started to pull at the corners of her mouth, "Also you do have something on your face, you've got black pen on your cheek."

"What!? Why didn't you tell me that before!?" I was yelling after her but she was already jogging off to boxing, only waving back at me in response.

"Right." Gale poked me in the chest as soon as he joined me at training, "It's been bugging me all morning, what's up with you?"

"Nothing." I sung and cheerily shot an arrow without concentrating. Gale watched it as it missed the entire target and clattered to the floor. "Oops."

He took his turn and scored a 9. "It's that's girl isn't it? Oh my God, you and her did it!"  
"Gale!" I spluttered and sent another arrow flying into the back wall, "No we didn't!"

"Sure, sure."

"No seriously! I'll tell you, but you can't tell anyone else ok?"

"Ah hah! So you did have se-"

"WE DIDN'T HAVE SEX!" I yelled at him, laughing. Suddenly I realised everyone in the room was staring at us and there was an awkward pause.

"Nice to know Katniss." Cinna nodded at me and returned his attention back to the group he was working with while everyone spluttered with laughter.

"I hate you." I hissed at him,

"Aww you love me," He grinned at me and flung his arm around my shoulders, "Just maybe not as much as you love someone else hmm?"

"Why are you my best friend?" I grumbled at him.

"No clue. So...?"

"So nothing! There's nothing going on!"

"If you say so." He replied sceptically and turned his attention back to the archery.

After dinner I played another game of darts with the others and finally got back to my room around 8:30, finding Clove in her usual position of sitting cross legged on the bed.

"Hey," I greeted her and flopped down next to her, "What are you doing?"

"Oh nothing," She waved her hand vaguely while leaning down and shoving something under the bed, "Let's workout before we do maths."

I groaned. "But you always beat me, your workouts are too hard!"

"You just have to practice 'till you become a gun like me." She grinned and pulled me up off the bed.

"What are doing first then?" I asked her warily.

"Pushups!" She grinned and pulled her hoodie over her head, placing in back onto the end of the bed. I couldn't help gulping at the glimpse of her pale abs.

"Hurry up!" She called impatiently, already waiting on the floor.

"Oh right..."

"Ok 1, 2, 3," I tried to keep up but after only 10 my ridiculously skinny arms gave way and I landed heavily on the floor. Clove only grinned as she kept counting out loud

"49, 50!" She elegantly lowered herself onto her stomach and grinned at me. "You're a bit of a stick Fire girl."

"Hey, I'm working on it."

She reached out and pinched my bicep, "Wow, you really needa eat more."

"Says you!"

"No way, you're skin and bone! I'm skin and ...muscle!"

"Just wait," I laughed, "A few more days and I'll be doing hundreds in a row."

"Yeah right. C'mon, let's do situps."

She was already crunching up and down but when I tried my feet kept flying into the air. In mid sit-up Clove noticed and burst out laughing.

"Here weakling, let me help." She interrupted my pathetic struggles and kneeled on my feet, resting her hands on my knees. "Ok now try."

I did, and sure enough with her holding my feet down I was able to bring myself all the way up into a sitting position.

"Ouch." I complained, "You seriously do this every day?"

"Yup, and you've only done one! Try and do twenty."

"Twenty!?" I protested but Clove only nodded so I relented and lowered myself down again. After about 2 minutes of pain I finally finished the set and sat breathing hard.

"Perfect." Clove smiled and placed a soft kiss on the end of my nose. "Now let's do maths."

In a split second she was back on the bed, pulling out and organising her books.

"You need to take a chill pill" I sighed, but joined her on the bed.

"The sooner I get everything done the sooner I get to fall asleep with you." She replied casually and opened her books. "What chapter are we doing?"

I was struggling to get my brain functioning after her kiss and could feel the tip of my nose tingling but forced myself to think.

"Uh, chapter 9."

She nodded and got to work, while I hesitantly slid my arm around her waist. She didn't reply and shuffled further towards me and leant her head on my shoulder while she worked.

"Clove?"

"Mmm?"

"How do you afford all your stuff?"

"Oh." She looked surprised that I was asking. "Well Cato's family pays for most of my stuff, the amount of clothes and things I have is normal back home, it's not like they're going out of their way to spend money on me. I have a job too, I'm a builder."

"A builder!?"

"Yeah, with houses and stuff. I like it 'cause it makes me stronger."

"Do you have friends there?"  
"Nah, I already said I don't have any friends."

"None at all?"

"Nup." Her expression was unchanging as she continued her maths while we spoke.

"Do you ever get sad?"

At this, she paused for a second and her fingers started tapping a beat on her leg.

"I didn't used to be, cause I guess I'd been alone for so long. I wasn't used to having anyone there for me, I was kind of in my own world. There were a few girls that would speak to me at school and it wasn't that I didn't like them, I just didn't really want to let them in. So I thought I was fine. But now I'm here and...you are the only person I've met who I wanted to be close to. When I'm alone I'm not lonely but when I'm with you I feel, I dunno, better? I get this weird feeling right here-" She motioned to her chest "kind of warm feeling, like I'm lighter or something."

I found myself laughing and she looked at me uneasily. "What?"

"That feeling - that's what feeling happy is! It means you're content."

"Oh," She stopped and thought about that, "That makes sense. You make me happy."

There was a lump in my throat and as she looked up at me I could feel tears pricking at my eyes. Suddenly her arms were around my neck and her lips were pressed to mine. I let my hands trail through her long dark hair as the kiss deepened and I felt her pull back as her cheek brushed mine.

"Wha-" She stared at me, "Why are you crying?"

I gave a watery laugh and pulled her close to me, her head resting against my chest, "No, I'm not sad, they're happy tears." I gave her a kiss on the top of her head as she cuddled into me, "You make me happy too."


	10. Chapter 10

After class Clove and I made our way down the hall through the masses of students who were chattering loudly as they headed out.

"I'll see you at dinner then." I smiled at her and took my usual turn off, only to have her come jogging after me.

"Hey! I'm coming! I wanna watch you shoot!"

"You have practice!" I frowned at her, though feeling a warm glow spread through me at her words.

"I don't need practice, like I already said, I'm a gun." She flexed her bicep at me and I rolled my eyes.

"You're stubborn, that's what you are. You're going to be the only other person there you know."

"I'll blend in."

"Maybe you can stand behind a seat or something, you're short enough."

"Shut up." She shoved me as I laughed at her.

Suddenly she bristled next to me and I looked up to see Gale approaching, his eyes narrowed at the girl beside me.

"What's she doing here?" He glared accusingly at me.

"Relax, she's with me. She wants to watch." My hand was settled protectively on her lower back and she shook slightly to move it off.

"I can handle him." She muttered to me and grabbed my hand as she pushed past him and into the stadium.

"Sorry." I mouthed back at him over my shoulder, though I wasn't sure if I should be apologising to him or Clove.

As soon as we were inside Clove dropped my hand and nimbly leaped from seat to seat until she settled herself in the back corner and gave me a thumbs up. Everyone else in the room was in the seats at the other end of them room where we were to be shooting from, around 50 metres away.

"So inconspicuous" I called to her and she hushed me with a finger pressed to her lips.

I pulled out my bow from my locker which we each use to keep our equipment in overnight, which happened to be next to Gale's, and found myself face to face with him when I turned around.

"I'm never going to get used to her." He sighed as he pulled his own bow from his locker. "But I'm guessing I'm going to have to aren't I?"

"What gives you that impression?"

"You just held hands with her," He raised his eyebrow at me as he led me over to sit near Jaylan who smiled wearily at both of us. "I'm not an idiot Katniss, I know what's going on."

"That doesn't mean anything!" I whispered.

"I can't believe you're dating a psycho." He hissed back at me.

The word 'dating' struck me and I let it mull over in my mind for a bit. Dating didn't feel like the right term, we hadn't even been out together. I made a mental note to take her out on the weekend.

The competition soon started and Gale once again easily won his, and again it was Jaylan and I who made it to the final round. She had her turn first and scored 29, an almost impossible target for me.

I took my turn and tried to block out the pressure I felt from Clove watching me intently up in the stands. Her eyes were fixed on my bow as I looked to her for reassurance, but she didn't meet my gaze. The arrow sped towards the target and landed with a thunk in the red, scoring an 8, and I felt my heart sink. It was impossible to win now, I'd needed to score three 10s in a row. I took my last two shots anyway, scoring a 9 and another 8.

This time it was my turn to shake hands and congratulate Jaylan, and I noticed Clove watching me carefully, unmoved from her seat.

"Bad luck Catnip." Gale was suddenly patting me on the back and practically leering at Jaylan. "Well played Jay."

"Thanks Gale." She smiled uncomfortably before sideling away.

I laughed as he watcher her leave disappointedly and gave him a little shove. "Cheer up! She'd bound to notice your irresistible good looks and natural charm sometime soon."

"Maybe." He sighed, my joking tone obviously flying right over his head, "Though I better start taking your advice now since you're the one that actually got a girl. How'd you do that by the way?"

"Uh, I dunno, it just kind of happened."

"Great tip, I'll keep that in mind." He looked over to where Clove was staring blankly at the wall opposite her, patiently waiting for everyone to leave. "What's up with her anyway? I can't tell if I should be scared of her or if she's scared of everyone."

"Yeah I'm not sure either." I replied, watching her now too as she noticed us looking at her and quickly turned away again. "She's sweet though, once you get to know her."

"I'll have to take your word for it, no way am I getting to know her."

"Actually I was thinking I could introduce her to everyone tonight."

Gale chocked on the water he was chugging right at the moment. "Are you kidding? She'll probably stab everyone!"

"She's not like that, honestly! Why does everyone think that?"

"Maybe cause she walks around giving everyone death glares all day."

"She can be different I swear, you'll see."

"Whatever you say." He shrugged and left for dinner. Soon Jaylan and I were the only ones remaining in the room and almost as soon as she waved goodbye to me I heard a pattern of quiet footsteps that were becoming familiar and looked up to see Clove standing next to me.

"Hey cutie" I greeted her and she frowned in disapproval at the nickname but settled herself cross legged next to me.

"You didn't win." She stated bluntly, fiddling with one of my arrows.

"No I didn't."

"You should of, you're better than her. When I saw you shooting the other time you got almost all tens."

"Maybe I was just having an off day today." I shrugged and ruffled her hair as I stood up. "All that matters is the last competition right?"

"Yeah so you better win that one."

"I'll try my best." I laughed and held out my hand for my arrow as I moved to put my bow back in it's locker. "What'd you do with that arrow?" I asked as I pulled on the lock.

Something was pressed into my open palm and even though it was the right size and shape I could tell from it's weight it wasn't one of mine.

"What's this-" I started to ask and glanced down to look at what she'd handed me. Grasped in my hand was an exact replica of an arrow, detail perfect right down to the sharpened tip, made of wood.

"I made it. For you." Clove was blushing furiously as she looked determinedly down at her feet. "It was meant to be good luck but I didn't give it to you before you started so obviously it didn't-"

Her words were cut off as I pulled her into a tight hug and her fingers tentatively gripped the material of my jacket.

"Its amazing, thank you!" I told her and pressed a soft kiss onto the top of her head.

"So you like it?" She mumbled as she looked at me hopefully.

"I love it." I grinned and she smiled back happily. I took her hand in mine as we walked from the room and she stood on tippy-toe to give me a messy kiss just below my ear.

It was after dinner and Clove was sprawled back on the bed, strumming her guitar lazily and flat-out refusing to come with me to join Gale and the rest for a game of scrabble.

"Just one game," I begged, "I'm so sure you'll like them once you get to know them."

She gave me a look that clearly said she felt differently.

"Why would I wanna play scrabble anyway? Don't you people have any more interesting games?"

Her words stung and I struggled to keep my face calm.

"Like what?"

"I dunno, video games? X-box, play station, that stuff."

"No we don't, I don't even know what those things are. We're not exactly loaded back home."

"Huh. Well I'm still not coming."

"Ok then." I replied airily, making my way towards to door slowly, "Guess I'll just have to hang with Gale instead. It's a small room you know, not many seats so I might end up sitting on his lap or something."

Clove was at the door almost as soon as I closed my mouth.

"Fine you win. I'm getting you back for this."

I simply smirked at her and locked the door behind me.

Since I'd spent so long convincing Clove to come with me, by the time we arrived at Gale's room everyone was already there. Apparently Marvel had snuck off to town with Cato, leaving the room free for us. There had been a table set up in the middle of the room, with a chair on each side and the scrabble board in the middle of the table. Ashlee and Rue were squeezed onto one chair, leaving Gale, Peeta and Thresh on the others. Clove and I stood awkwardly in the door way as everyone fixed their eyes on the girl next to me. Averting my eyes from the death glare Gale was giving me I introduced Clove to everyone as my roommate. There was silence until Ashlee finally managed a weak smile and told Clove her name, to which Clove nodded.

"I'm sure I've seen you before," Peeta was musing, "You're a boxer aren't you?"

"Sure am, so you better think twice before trying anything, I'd have no problem taking you out."

Peeta's mouth dropped open and I gave Clove a sharp elbow in the ribs, which she ignored.

"Can we start this thing already?" Thresh asked, uninterested by the new arrival. "I've never played this game and if we hang around any longer it looks like I still never will have. Peeta you're with me."

There were only four players allowed so with the extra person the teams were now Rue and Ashlee, Peeta and Thresh, Clove and I, and Gale. As Gale had his own chair, Ashlee and Rue were sharing one since Rue was so tiny and Peeta and Thresh were sitting on the end of the bed, only one chair was left at our side of the table and I searched the room with my eyes desperately for another chair. There wasn't one and I realised we had no choice but to share. I sat down and Clove settled herself on my legs and shifted over so I could see the board. My arms dangled by my sides awkwardly until I tentatively rested my left arm around Clove's waist. I could feel everyone's eyes watching us while this went on and sure enough looked up to see both Peeta and Ashlee looking surprised Clove had so readily sat on my lap without needing any prompting from anyone.

Thresh started the game and passed out everyone's tiles, so I watched as Clove's long fingers nimbly took them and quickly arranged them on our rack, taking only a few seconds before she spotted a possible word. She rearranged the letters to form 'loser' and grinned happily at me, then wiggled her eyebrows first at the word, then at Gale. I gave her another sharp jab to the ribs and she huffed and turned her attention back to the board, where Ashlee and Rue where taking their first turn. While the rest of us chatted and laughed through the game, Clove sat silently, seemingly ignoring everyone while she did her best to have us win. The further the game went on the more relaxed I became and it was only when I realised Ashlee was starting at me that I became conscious of the fact my arms were wrapped around Clove's waist and my chin was on her shoulder as I looked over her and onto the board. I sat up straight and blushed, about to explain but at that moment Clove swivelled her head around and pouted at me.

"You're not helping." She complained, and with her face so close to mine I immediately forgot what I'd just been doing.

"You're doing such a good job though, there's nothing for me to do!" I pointed out. It was true, our score was almost double the next highest score which was Ashlee and Rue's. Ashlee was smart and I could tell Clove thought so too by the way she gave a slight nod whenever Ashlee would place down an impressive word. Gale on the other hand was struggling, and groaned as Clove put down the word 'archery' to give us a 50 point bonus for using all the tiles. While he agonised over what to do for his turn Clove's hand found its way to my leg and she brushed her thumb slowly back and forth. Ashlee was still trying to talk to me and I could feel my face getting redder and redder as she mouthed something across the table at me.

"What?" I mouthed back.

"You and her?" She was motioning between Clove and I to make sure I knew what she was asking. I hadn't realised it was so obvious but then again the way Clove acted around me compared to anyone else was noticeably different. Earlier she'd jumped backwards when Thresh passed her a tile and their hands brushed, almost squashing me. It was easy to see she hated contact and closeness, yet here she was, sitting on my lap comfortably, turning around to see my reaction whenever she placed down a high-scoring word, which was often.

I made a split-second decision of how to reply to Ashlee and gave her a shy nod. Her mouth dropped open slightly but she regained her composure quickly and mouthed the word 'cute' at me. A proud grin spread across my face and I couldn't help glancing up at Clove who was busy concentrating on the game and oblivious one more person in the room was now aware of our relationship.

Apparently the game was now over as Gale was looking sour as Peeta counted up everyone's points and Clove sat looking extremely pleased with herself.

"I'm just too good at this game," I joked as he announced us the winners and Clove jumped off me and rested her hand on my shoulder.

"I'm gonna go, I'll see you back at the room." She announced to me and slipped out the door.

"Fast exit." Gale observed.

"I'm surprised she stayed this long, she's not exactly a fan of socialising." I replied.

"She's so comfortable with you!" Ashlee joined in, "How'd you do that?"

"I've got no idea really. It took a while, she was so hostile to start with. She was pretty lonely, she doesn't have many friends."

"Can't imagine why not." Gale muttered bitterly. "Honestly the death glares she gives me, I'm gonna have nightmares. You better follow her, she might set your room on fire."

"Well I am the fire girl so maybe I'd make it worse. It's late though so I will go, I'll see you all tomorrow."

They waved and I made my way quickly back to our room, finding Clove working on her maths.

"What a surprise." I grinned at her and she smiled back and suddenly gave a large yawn. Her nose and forehead crinkled, giving her head a little shake and it took all my self control not to run at her right then.

"Right missy, you're tired, let's hit the sack."

"Ok-k." She stuttered, in the middle of another yawn.

I flicked off the light and climbed under the covers with her, laying my arm out so she could rest her head on my chest while I adjusted the blanket so it was up to her chin.

"How did you like scrabble?" I asked her.

"Wasn't too bad," She mumbled, "It's so easy. Your friends are alright, I thought they would be different."

"How do you mean?"

"Well I've never hung out with...your kind of people before. They're not that bad. Except your boyfriend, I don't like him."

"Don't call him that! He's not that bad really, he just has a thing against careers. I'm sure he'll get used to you."

Her hand tightened around my singlet in her usual tight grip and I could feel her drifting off to sleep.

"Sweet dreams." I whispered and kissed the top of her head.

"Night beautiful." Came her tired reply and I felt my heart flip, falling asleep with a stupid smile on my face.

* * *

**Sorry for the slow update! I've been doing a bit of planning and writing the end chapters so I know what's going on, so hopefully now that's done I'll go back to usual.**

**Oh and I haven't forgotten the picture, it's coming! :)**

**The reviews are amazing by the way, I get really excited whenever I get one haha, so thanks everyone! :)**


	11. Chapter 11

***UPDATED***

**I am SO sorry for the slow updates, I'm stuck right in the middle of studying for exams and finding it hard to have enough time to write. **

* * *

Clove's urgent voice called me as the room around me slowly came into focus and I realised she was shaking me awake.

"Wake up Fire girl, come quick!"

"What's going on?" I mumbled, completely disoriented. "What's wrong, are you ok?"

"No I'm fine, just come look."

She held her hand out for me and I reached to take it but she seemed to change her mind and hurried over to the window, causing me to topple onto the floor.

"I thought we got past this whole 'getting up in the middle of the night thing.'" I grumbled, and stumbled over to join her at the window.

It must have been early morning as the sun was almost up and the sky was filled with patches of purple and orange. A couple of birds were cheeping in a tree somewhere off to the left, and a few rays of sun broke through the clouds, causing me to squint. There was certainly nothing remarkable about the scene and I turned to Clove with a quizzical look.

"So?" She asked me expectantly.

"So what?"

"What's wrong with it?"

"What's wrong with what?" I asked bemused.

"The sky! I woke up and it was all-" she gestured out the window vaguely, "Wrong."

As I realised what she meant I burst out laughing and her previous worried expression soured.

"Aww Clove," I cooed at her, her expression somehow adorable, "There's nothing wrong with the sky, that's the sunrise! It turns that colour every morning when the sun comes up, and again every night when it goes down. Have you really never seen it before?"

"Uhh, I guess we have lots of tall buildings everywhere...and pretty much everything we do is done inside...are you really being serious?"

"Of course! This isn't even a sunset at it's best, you need to see one from start to finish, that's when they're really amazing."  
The idea brought a smile to the younger girl's face and she looked back out the window wishfully, "I'd like to see that one day. It looks really pretty."

"Clove!" I exclaimed in pretend shock, "Did I just hear you describe something as pretty?"

"Shut up." She huffed, "There's lots of things I think are pretty!"

"Oh really, like what?"

"You."

Now it was my turn to blush furiously as Clove smirked, happy to have the upper hand once again. Her mood swings were so sudden it was hard to keep up; one second she was the shy little kid and the next she was apparently trying to seduce me. Which was really working quite well. Without another word she climbed back into bed and switched the light off, leaving me still standing and wondering how to respond.

"You gonna stand there all day?" Came her voice from the bed. I sighed and slipped under the covers next to her.

"How long 'till we have to get up?" I asked quietly.

"Like an hour."

"Ok."

I lay silently as Clove shuffled herself around, trying to find a comfortable spot. Inside my mind my thoughts were racing, as I wondered if I had the courage to return the compliment Clove had given me. Now seemed the perfect time so I turned over to face her and burst out with laughter when I saw her lying flat on her front, her arms at her sides and her face pressed into the pillow.

"What?" Came her disgruntled mumble.

"Is that comfortable?"

"No."

"Ok." I giggled again and there was a pause. "You're really pretty too you know"

She awkwardly shuffled herself onto her back and looked at me with a frown.

"Really?"

"Of course, you're gorgeous."

Her eyebrows knitted together further. "No one's ever told me that before."

"Well that's stupid, cause you're the prettiest girl I've ever met."

A small smile played on her lips. "Well you're the nicest girl I've ever met."

I leaned over and kissed her softly on the forehead, her eyes fluttering shut at the contact.

"Fire girl?"

"mmhm?"

"Do you have a family?"

My own eyes snapped open at the unexpected question and I found her gazing steadily back at me.

"Yeah I do," I answered after a moment of hesitation, "I've got my Mum and my little sister Prim."

"What about your Dad?"

"He died in a mining accident when I was young."

This seemed to surprise her and her eyes flickered away and towards the window as she considered what I'd said.

"Do you miss him?"

"It's not so bad now, I do miss him but it's been a long time. What about you? Do you miss your parents?"

"Nah." She replied easily, surprising me with how emotionless her response was. "They died before I was one year old, I don't have any memory of them. I don't even know who they were so I can't really miss them." She gave a little shrug before continuing in a quieter voice. "The only thing I miss is having a family. I really wish I had a family."

I sighed and pulled her closer, tracing my finger lightly along her arms.

"Tell me about your sister." She breathed, just as quietly as before.

The thought of Prim brought a smile to my face and I realised I hadn't called her for the entire time I'd been on camp.

"Well she's 12 years old. She looks a bit like me I guess, but with blonde hair instead."

"So she's pretty then." Clove smiled, and looked pleased when I laughed.

"She is pretty, but much prettier than me. She's tall for her age, maybe your height, and she has really nice blue eyes, you know the type that make a person look really kind straight away?"

"Not really."

"Oh, well that's what I think they look like anyway. And she is kind, she wants to be a nurse when she grows up and she always helps my mother with any patients we get. My mum runs a kind of hospital, just for people who can't afford to use the real one, which is most people."

"She sounds exactly like you."

"Oh no, I'm horrible with any kind of doctor stuff, I can't even stand to look at blood."  
"Really? I love the look of blood."

"That's creepy." I frowned at her, but she was lying with her eyes closed as my thumb brushed over her forehead and she didn't see.

"I'd like to meet your family."

My stomach flipped at the thought of bringing Clove home with me one day. My mother would probably flip at the task of having another mouth to feed, not that she had anything to do with putting food onto the table anyway, I was the one who worked constantly in order for us to be able to even keep our house. Prim, on the other hand, loved meeting anyone new and would probably jump out of her skin in excitement. That gave me an idea and I stretched my hand out for my phone and sat up.

"What are you doing?" Clove complained, having to re-position herself back onto my lap.

"Calling someone" I answered, smirking, while I dialled.

"It's only 5:30 in the morning." Clove hissed quietly, unsure if anyone was on the other side of the phone yet.

"People back home wake up early." I waved my hand at her just as a soft voice came through the handset.

"Hello?"

"Prim! How are you little one?"

"Katniss!" The young girl squealed, "I thought you'd forgotten about us!"

"Like I could ever do that. How's everything at home? How's the money?"

"It's alright, we still have a bit left from the extra work you did, and the baker is giving us some bread for meals. He says his son went on the camp too."

"Oh that would be Peeta, yeah he's here. I just wish you could see it, it's amazing here. The food is delicious, the rooms are huge and the beds are so soft! I've had a hot shower here every single day!"

"Wow." Prim sounded awe-struck. "I'd love to be there! Have you taken lots of pictures?"

"A few, I'll take some more to show you though."

"Sounds great," I could hear her smiling through the phone, "Have you made heaps of new friends? You must have met so many new people! Are they all rich with fancy clothes and things? Are they nice? Oh my gosh have you met any of the careers?"  
"Slow down!" I laughed, "I'm not as good at making friends as you are. But I'm getting along really well with everyone from 12 that came here with me. There's a girl Rue who I know you'd love, she's around your age, I'll have to introduce you when we get back home. And I have met careers, one's rooming with me."

"Rooming with you?" She repeated in shock as Clove's twitched at the mention of her and she tilted her head up to watch me as I spoke.

"Yep and she's great. Her name's Clove and she's a boxer."

"So you're friends?"  
"Best friends." I confirmed and Clove blushed self-consciously. I smiled at her and laced the fingers of my free hand with hers.

"That's so cool!" Prim was gushing, "Is she scary? Does she have amazing clothes? Does she know famous people?"

"She's not scary at all, she likes to pretend she is though-" Clove rolled her eyes and huffed at me. "You can speak to her yourself if you like, she'll answer your questions."

"Oh yes please!" She agreed happily.

"Ok I'll hand you over."

"Be nice." I warned Clove, my hand covering the phone.

"Always am." She grinned wickedly at me and took the phone.

I watched, amused, as her brow quickly furrowed, trying to keep up with the excited bubbling that was obviously coming through the mobile.

"Yes, mmhm." Clove was agreeing to whatever it was Prim was asking. "Yeah, it's Clove. Oh, thank you."

"She says I have a nice name." She relayed to me and I smiled and draped my arms around her neck. "No one's ever said that to me before either."

I heard Prim's voice ask something again and Clove listed a few movie stars she'd seen back at her town. For the next few minutes she simply listened, occasionally humming in agreement as Prim prattled on. Prim had always been one to talk a lot, back home she recite all her stories from the day while we prepared the dinner together. From what I could make out, she was currently informing Clove about life in 12.

"Oh I'm not sure, maybe over 1000?"

"1000 different stores?!" I could hear Prim's amazed voice clearly.

She rambled on for a bit longer until Clove finally got a word in with "It was nice to meet you too," and she hung up, handing the battered nokia back to me with a pleased expression.

"I like her." She proclaimed, "Everything she says reminds me of you. It was like I was talking to you, except you were right here, so I wasn't."

"Trippy." I smiled, "I guess she approved of you then."

"Does she know we're -" she motioned back and forth between us with her hand.

"No way, that was the first time she's heard of you."

"Oh." She pulled the blanket back over us and snuggled down under it. "I wouldn't mind if she knew."

"Neither would I," I agreed, "It's my mum I'm more worried about."

"I'll punch her lights out if she's not ok with it."

I spluttered with laughter and gave her a nudge.

"You can't kill my mother!"

"It wouldn't have to kill her." She replied casually.

"I'm starting to wonder if I really do want you to meet my family." I mused and the younger girl's eyes shot open.

"No, I'm sorry, I was joking! Please!"

"I'm kidding silly." I assured her, and she relaxed visibly in my arms. "We've got half an hour 'till breakfast, let's make the most of it."

"Fine." She murmured.

I reached over and shoved my phone back into the drawers next our bed and my fingers brushed against a piece of paper. Pulling it out I realised it was the drawing Clove had done for me in class the other day. The drawing was of the classroom we had been in at the time, but with almost the entire page coloured in black so only the outlines of objects and people could be seen. In the corner where we'd been sitting, she'd drawn me in the only space left white, so I was left to look life I was glowing. The detail on my face was immaculate, right down to the crinkle on my forehead as I concentrated on the teacher at the front of her room. Clove had drawn herself lying with her head on her desk again, watching me as she had in class and was coloured dark like the rest of the picture.

"Hey," I nudged her again, "I forgot to ask what your picture meant."

"Huh?" She opened her eyes and peered at me blearily even though they'd only been shut for a minute. She glanced at what I was looking at shrugged. "I just did it like that."

I frowned at her less than satisfactory answer and waited for her to say something more, but she simply lay back down.

"Oi." I poked her lightly and she let out a large sigh.

"Fine." She drawled with her eyes determinedly shut. "It's meant to be ...how I see things. Like, everything else is in the background. There's just you."

I felt a smile spread across my face as I watched Clove's ears heat up with embarrassment.

"You are so adorable." I breathed and leaned down to kiss the tip of her nose.

"You're not bad either." She replied with the corners of her lips twitching.

* * *

I spotted the other boxers crowded around a tall man and turned to Clove.

"Which one's the one who won last time?"

Her expression soured and she pointed out a tallish girl with dark hair. "Jordan." she stated shortly, the distaste evident in her voice.

"She looks kind of nice." I offered hesitantly as the girl saw us looking and smiled weakly at Clove.

"I don't like her."

"You don't like many people." I sighed and gave her a little push in the direction of the group. "I'll watch from here, good luck!"

"Ok." Clove nodded, her jaw hardened from what I guessed to be nerves. She made her way to the other side of the rings, swaggering slightly in a walk she only used in public.

Cinna and a few others were seated near the main ring so I picked a seat just in front of Cinna and twisted around to ask him how the competition worked. He smiled and explained it operated on a knock out system like our archery competitions, but with a more complicated system of points that I didn't even bother trying to understand.

The group of boxers left to get ready somewhere so I passed the time by watching two boys practicing in one of the smaller rings. They were both wearing helmets that didn't look sturdy at all, and mouth guards to match the colour of their helmets. Every few hits one of the boys would wince, and the one who was losing was looking more and more distressed as the match went on. By the time their turn was over I was almost ready to go and find Clove and tell her she was going to need to find a new sport because I was never going to watch her play this one. However, before I had time to act to act on that thought Clove was climbing into the main ring along with a light haired girl.

They moved into their respective corners and a scoreboard hanging from the room suddenly light up, showing a timer ready to count down from 3 minutes. The blonde girl was dressed in blue with her matching helmet and mouthguard, and Clove was in red. As she glanced at me from the corner of her eye and gave me a tiny smile that looked more like a grimace, I noticed she'd decided she didn't need a mouthguard. Typical; boxing was probably the reason a few of her teeth were now crooked.

An umpire in white joined the girls in the ring and a short bell sounded to signal the start of the match. A few seconds passed while no one moved, and I was about to turn to ask Cinna what was happening when Clove suddenly skipped forward, landed several quick punches on the other girls helmet and skipped backwards again without being touched. Looking flustered, the other girl moved forward and took a swing at Clove's chest, but Clove brought her arm up around her collarbone, protecting herself, and dodged to the left to easily avoid the attack. A venomous smirk curled at Clove's lips as her confidence rose. She waited for the girl to make another move and quickly dodged it, before replying with a few jabs.

Around me a couple of people were calling out encouragement for the other girl who was apparently called Sophie, but nothing was helping. Her eyes kept darting side to side as though looking for an escape as Clove pounced with every slight opportunity Sophie gave her. By the time the 3 minutes were up Sophie looked ready to burst into tears, and Clove was leaning smugly against the rope of the ring, looking expectantly at the umpire. Sure enough the umpire nodded towards Clove and announced her the winner, at which Clove gave a satisfied nod and left the ring before the scoreboard had even changed to display: RSC - red.

"What does that mean?" I asked Cinna quietly while the next pair readied themselves in the ring. I noticed one of them was the girl called Jordan who had won the last competition.

"It stands for referee stopped contest." He replied, "Basically the fight was so one sided he decided it was pointless to play another round."

"Knew that girl would be good at bashing people up." I heard from beside me and turned to find Gale sitting himself down in the seat on my right.

"Gale! What are you doing here?"

"We're having a break for lunch, and since you weren't at training I figured you'd be here. Is the freak one of the one's up there?" He indicated the fight in front of us that had begun, in which Jordan was already dominating.

"No, Clove already passed her first match."

He shook his head. "I can't stand boxing. All they do is punch each other, it's hardly a sport."

"It looks hard though, it must take guts."

"Maybe, but these guys wouldn't last a second in a sport that actually requires skill."

"You'd be surprised Gale." Interrupted Cinna, "Anticipation in a sport like this is an extremely hard skill to develop, and one all good boxers need. Your friend Clove is one of the best I've seen, she's able to react to any attack almost instantly."

"She's not my -." Gale started, but changed his mind. "I mean, I haven't really seen her box yet."

"You're in for a treat then." Cinna smiled and shot me a quick wink.

After a few matches Jordan's match was over as well, with her unfortunate opponent hardly landing a point. There were a few more matches with girls I didn't recognise, until it was Clove's turn again and she climbed into the ring, her face without the slightest trace of emotion. The girl in the other corner was quite large, with dark skin and surprisingly bright eyes. They darted around nervously as Clove studied her, tapping her leg subconsciously as she waited for the bell.

The bell sounded and the other girl immediately jumped forward, obviously having realised she needed the element of surprise if she was going to win. Her glove connected with the side of Clove's head with a loud thud and Clove reeled backwards, flailing her arms around as she tried to regain her balance. The larger girl sensed her opportunity and moved forward to throw another punch, this time aiming at Clove's upper chest. Before she could hit her, Clove adjusted to the oncoming attack and used her momentum to duck down and under the girl's arm and dodge behind her. From there she landed several quick jabs which sent her points ticking over quickly. The larger girl tried to recover but with Clove now backing her into the corner it was a lost cause, and the match was soon over with the same result as the first game.

"She's good." Gale conceded

"Yeah," I smiled, "Watch this next girl, she's good too."

It was Jordan's second match next and once again she passed it easily, meaning she progressed through to the semi-final, which was to be against Clove. From watching the two girls in the other semi-final it was obvious the eventual winner would be either Jordan or Clove. In fact, the first semi-final was quite even, with the winner only scoring two extra points than her opponent.

I was starting to feel nervous as the girls left the ring and the next semi-final was introduced. My hands were sweaty and quickly wiped them on my pants, trying to calm myself. How weird that I was significantly more worried for Clove than I ever was for my own competitions.

Jordan clambered into the ring first and shook herself nervously, bouncing slightly on her heels. She tried to settle herself and gave a small smile to no one in particular, but it was obvious butterflies were flying around in her stomach like crazy. In contrast, Clove slipped effortlessly into the arena looking like she'd never seen a butterfly in her life, let alone allow one to flap around inside her. Everything about her screamed desperation to win, from her hands clenched at her sides to her head that was cocked to the side, staring at Jordan with a steely resolve. So strong was her gaze that when she shifted her eyes momentarily over to me I was so caught by surprise I could only manage to mouth a quick 'good luck' before she turned away again. A small smile pulled at her lips as she turned back but she caught herself and quickly frowned harshly, directing her attention back to the girl in front of her, who was now looking slightly amused, causing Clove's frown to deepen.

* * *

It was the last round and Clove and Jordan had each won one round each, and the score was now tied on 11 points each. '0:10' flashed on the timer above the ring and Jordan aimed a punch at Clove's head that caused her to flinch and dodge away, but Jordan immediately swung again, trying to take advantage of Clove's imbalance. At once, Clove flung her arm up and blocked the punch and in the same motion used her free arm to land a sharp blow to the other girl's abs.

The bell sounded and I jumped from my seat clapping wildly, and then almost fell over from shock when I glanced to my left and saw Gale doing the same thing, though with less enthusiasm. As for Clove, she was sneering at the girl opposite her and ignoring the clapping around her. As I moved out into the aisle to go and congratulate her for making the final I saw Jordan smile kindly at the shorter girl opposite her and offer her hand out to her. Automatically Clove froze, but finally gave Jordan's hand a hesitant little shake and quickly let go again, but with a miniscule smile and a little nod. Then in a flash she was leaping over the ropes of the ring, sprinting up the aisle and careering into me with so much force I had to take several steps backwards to keep from falling over.

"Thank you." She whispered as her arms wrapped tightly around my waist.

"For what?" I asked, noticing the gobsmacked expressions of the people around us.

"For everything."


End file.
